I see that warning about flash settings, approve/deny, every time I start a video. Using Opera now, same annoying thing as in Firefox.
I stopped using Firefox recently due to another video related (possibly Flash related) problem: every time I watched a video, the Windows clock went haywire, losing time by hours or even days. Finally I concluded that the Firefox “plug-incontainer” was implicated, and things got a little better when it was closed using Task Manager, but still the clock was crazy and the browser was slow; low on memory notices kept popping up.
This had been going on for many months. Switched to Opera. Videos got better, clock behaved itself a little better. Then one day I got lucky: a power failure. When the computer came back on and got itself dusted off and re-groomed, it was “January 1, 2001.” (Actual date, 2010!) I restarted. Never had another problem with the clock or any video.
Still, I am very leery of Flash, Adobe in general, and its mysterious cookie settings. Some sites (not youtube) will show the alert but the approve/deny buttons aren’t clickable. Usually the deny thing takes several clicks and must be repeated every time the volume function is touched. If I knew how I would prevent that approve/deny window from ever appearing. It is up to no good.
Conclusions: Adobe, Firefox, me no like. Way fewer popups and glitches with Opera. It is also much faster than FF and doesn’t have an evil companion like FF’s plug-incontainer.
Fossil, thanks for this thread. It will take time to absorb but I know I’m going to learn something useful!
How old is the computer?
Typically, your computer's BIOS settings are kept in a small battery-backed RAM chip. If the battery dies (typically after five years or so), and you lose all external power, the settings revert to factory values. It sounds like your BIOS backup battery has gone dead, and you had improper BIOS settings which got reset as a result of the power failure. That would account for the improvement in your machine's operation.
If you need customized settings for some reason, you should replace the BIOS battery. It's usually a small watch battery held onto your mother board by a clip.