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Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 7. Dec 2014, 20:41
by Nahoby
Host Maveric OSX on a Mac Air 11'
Virtualbox Version: 4.3.20
Running Windows 7 Ultimate

Problem: tried to run flash movies, after Install of Adobe Flash.
Flash ist running in Browser (IE) with Black Screen. Sound is running. ( Whenn you Scroll the Page you see flickering the movie a bit, after stop Scrolling, again Black Screen.
In Googlechrome Flashmovies are flickering hole the time (Seems as if the Browser tries to reload the Page?!.
Have no Idear to fix the Problem?
I hope here is someone who can help me.
Thanks a lot
GreetZ Nahoby

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 7. Dec 2014, 22:18
by loukingjr
Did you install the guest additions in your Windows guest?

See this as well: Minimum information needed for assistance.

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 00:18
by Nahoby
Yes the Guest Additions are installed and 2D and 3D is activated, but it dos not work.
From the Vbox Log
00:00:01.888728 Installed Extension Packs:
00:00:01.888751 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 4.3.20 r96996; VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP)

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 00:25
by Perryg
I would try disabling GPU Accelerated Compositing in chrome and see if that helps.

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 01:07
by socratis
Nahoby wrote:Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 4.3.20 r96996;
Extension Pack is NOT the same as Guest Additions. Again, I suggest you follow loukingjr and Perryg's advice, which means that a) post a complete log and b) disable GPU acceleration in Chrome. I would add a third one; disable 3D acceleration in the VM settings. See if that helps.

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 01:32
by loukingjr
Something is going on with Windows 7 as a guest or the GAs. I haven't opened my Windows 7 guest since the end of November but I wanted to check the OP's issues. My W7 guest which I've had since 3/26/13 has now slowed considerably. The W.E.I. has gone down from 4.9 to 2.0. IE's HTML5 video player just gives an error now. Chrome's HTML5 player seems to work although it's buffering. Flash still works but it also stutters and the audio and video get out of sync quickly.

I'm investigating.

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 11:01
by socratis
I tried to see if I can replicate your results. Host: MacBookPro8,3, OSX 10.6.8, 16GB RAM, VirtualBox 4.3.20 with matching ExtPack. Guest: Win7sp1, fully updated as of 11/Dec/2014 (btw, Microsoft pulled the dreaded KB3004394 from its updates), 2GB RAM, GAs 4.3.20 with WDDM, 2D and 3D acceleration enabled, and the latest and greatest of the major browsers.
  • WEI had to do its calibration again because new hardware was detected, I guess I updated the GAs without re-running it. Here's what "the" WEI told me:

    Code: Select all

               Old  New
    Processor  6.1  6.1
    Memory     4.5  5.5 <--???
    Graphics   5.9  5.9
    Gaming     4.9  4.9
    Disk       6.6  6.7
  • HTML5 and Flash player in Chrome 39.0.2171.95, Firefox 34.0.5, IE 11.0.9600.17501, Opera 26.0.1656.32. The first part is the status as described in https://www.youtube.com/html5, the second part are the scores from http://html5test.com/ and the third part are the results of trying to play a video with a) the HTML5 player and b) with Adobe Flash 16.0.0.235 installed, in window and full screen playback:

    Code: Select all

                  C   F  IE   O
    HTMLVideo     +   +   +   +
    H.264         +   +   +   +
    WebM VP8      +   +   -   +
    Media SE      +   -   -   +
    MSE & H.264   +   -   -   -
    MSE & WebM9   +   -   -   +
    -----------------------------
    HTML5test   512 455 369 508
    -----------------------------
    HTML5         +   +  SR   +
    HTML5 Full    +   +  SR   +
    Flash         +   +   +   +
    Flash Full    +   +   +   +
    Notes
    • Chrome, IE, Opera had hardware acceleration enabled.
    • For Chrome I had to install "Magic Actions for YouTube 6.8", otherwise it wouldn't allow me to play a video in Flash in YouTube. It played fine in http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/graph ... fault.html.
    • Internet Explorer would come up with an error when trying to play YouTube HTML5 videos. Even with the WebM plugin, it wouldn't play the test videos in MS's site (previous note). The only way to play HTML5 videos was to disable hardware acceleration in IE.
    • No major stuttering or buffering or any "major" problems. Chrome and Opera had some artifacts now and then, but nothing to write home about.

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 13:46
by loukingjr
For some reason reinstalling the GAs in W7 fixed the W.E.I. problem and is back to normal.

I never paid much attention to the "dreaded" KB3004394 update because I thought that was mainly causing problems with Windows hosts but removed it from my Windows 7 and 8.1 guests anyway. It does make me wonder what other "updates" cause problems in guests or hosts.

It turns out 100% of my video issues in browsers were because of hardware acceleration being enabled. Disabled it in IE11, FF and Chrome and everything is now hunky doory.

thanks for mentioning H.A. :)

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 14:42
by socratis
Well, the thing is that I had to disable hardware acceleration only for IE. Firefox as well as Chrome and Opera (the latter two based on Blink, a fork of WebKit) were all right, although since there actually no hardware acceleration whatsoever, it doesn't hurt to turn them off. It might actually help.
loukingjr wrote:It does make me wonder what other "updates" cause problems in guests or hosts.

Code: Select all

SELECT * FROM WindowsUpdates WHERE Fail=True COUNT (*);
Critical Error: Integer Overflow !!!

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 14:45
by loukingjr
Turning off hardware acceleration definitely helps, at least in Windows guests. I don't have issues with Linux guests.

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 15:40
by loukingjr
I wish people wouldn't post a reply then erase them before I can read them. I get an email notice then poof, no post. :D

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 15:52
by rpmurray
socratis wrote:

Code: Select all

SELECT * FROM WindowsUpdates WHERE Fail=True COUNT (*);
Critical Error: Integer Overflow !!!
That would give you a syntax error. Try this instead:

Code: Select all

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM WindowsUpdates WHERE Fail=True;

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 16:09
by loukingjr
rpmurray wrote:
socratis wrote:

Code: Select all

SELECT * FROM WindowsUpdates WHERE Fail=True COUNT (*);
Critical Error: Integer Overflow !!!
That would give you a syntax error. Try this instead:

Code: Select all

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM WindowsUpdates WHERE Fail=True;
Okay, I wasn't going to ask and embarrass myself by asking what this code was going to accomplish but now I have to. I tried running it in the Windows Command Prompt which is either the wrong place to run it or my Windows 7 install has no idea what 'Select' is. :)

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 17:38
by socratis
It was a humorous attempt to show how if you try to count the number of fails in the Windows updates using SQL-syntax-like (that's the keyword rpmurray, syntax-like :D) that they're too numerous, so that the integer overflows ;)

The only thing I managed is to do, is to confuse loukingjr and have rpmurray show how SQL un-savvy I trully am :lol:

Re: Flash Content with black screen

Posted: 11. Dec 2014, 19:34
by loukingjr
oooohhh, NOW I get it. :lol: <- pretends I think it's funny when a Windows update screws up my guests. :D :wink: