While you are troubleshooting this, it might be helpful, to avoid unnecessary pain on sites where Flash is not actually essential, try setting Flash to Click-to-Play ("Ask to Activate"). This will delay Flash from starting on a page until you approve it.

To set "Ask to Activate", open the Add-ons page using either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. On the right side, look for "Shockwave Flash" and change "Always Activate" to "Ask to Activate".

When you visit a site that wants to use the Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar (looks like a small Lego block) and one of the following: a link in a black rectangle in the page or an infobar sliding down between the toolbar area and the page.

You don't need to take any action on the notification unless you want to approve Flash to run in the page.

As an aside, did you use Firefox's Refresh feature recently? I'm wondering because your "More System Details" doesn't show any activated extensions; most people pick up an extension or two or lots more over time. If you did a refresh, there would be an Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop.

This is some standard guidance that addresses the most common issues with the Flash Player plugin. I'm sure you've seen some of it before, but just in case:

(1) If you have any recorders/downloaders that interact with Flash media make sure they are as up-to-date as possible, or disable them temporarily.

(2) Disable hardware acceleration in Firefox and in Flash

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

That takes effect the next time you exit and start Firefox up again.

(B) In Flash, right-click the media and choose Settings, then the first mini-tab and uncheck the box to use hardware acceleration. More information in this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

I understand Flash isn't running long enough to access this setting. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of an alternate way to change it.

(3) Disable protected mode (Windows Vista and higher)

The protected mode feature of the Flash player plugin has security benefits, but seems to have compatibility issues on some systems. You can disable it by creating or editing a settings file. The following pages/posts provide different approaches for that:

• Adobe support article under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

• Manual steps: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/968190?page=5#answer-509209

• Batch file to automate the manual steps: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/982093#answer-518078 (alternate version of Carm's batch file with a few changes by me: https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=f7d304d92388737d&id=F7D304D9238...)

Flash needs to completely unload from memory (exiting and starting Firefox up again might help) before this takes effect.

Any improvement?

I did a refresh on it after I posted the question but aside from that I haven't done any kind of modifications to the browser. I just got this computer about a month ago so haven't really did anything to it.

The refresh didn't help the problem any at all.

I did some more google searches and actually just got done uninstalling and reinstalling firefox which seems to have resolved the problem momentarily. Just wish I knew what had caused it to begin with,you know?

Possibly a transient glitch corrupted a program file?? I'm not sure we'll ever know what happened.