416892 - Flash Player 9 + AS3 disables tab change with mouse

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Josh]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12

When viewing certain flash files in Firefox, the tab interface will become unavailable using mouse clicks. Ctrl+Tab still works. Tested on Win XP and Win Vista. If I click another tab nothing will happen until I navigate to a different page. Once I do that, the tab I clicked will gain focus.

==Flash plugin info==
File name: NPSWF32.dll
Shockwave Flash 9.0 r45

==SWF info==
Version 9
AS3
120fps
uses: addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,whatever_function);

==HTML/JavaScript info==
swfobject
XHTML Strict DTD

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. View embedded SWF files that meet the above criteria (example: http://peaceoutside.org/dots1.php) with other tabs open
2. Click another tab
Actual Results:  
Other tab will not gain focus until the page with the flash is navigated away from.

Expected Results:  
Other tab immediately gains focus.

On the pages that exhibit this problem, the loading bar in the status bar at the bottom of Firefox usually looks like it's is 99% complete, but never finishes.

Comment 1

[Josh]

This does not happen in IE7 on Windows XP or Vista.

Comment 2

[[:Cww]]

Works for me, can you see if this happens in safe mode? http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode

Can you see if this happens in a new profile?
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles create a new profile.

Comment 3

[[:Cww]]

Hmmm... I will say this: some really processor intensive applets and flash embeds seem to monopolize processor power so that Firefox (and the rest of Windows) becomes really non-responsive.  Usually, you can force it to respond by Alt-Tabbing to another program.  Or if you're really really patient, Windows will eventually get around to reading your mouse press.  You may be seeing that effect here.

Comment 4

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

In bug 438818 a similar problem is reported to be fine now. Can you reproduce with the latest Firefox and Flash player version?

Comment 5

[Josh]

Flash Player 10 and Firefox 3.5.3 do not have this issue on Windows XP, Vista or 7.

Comment 6

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

Thanks, I'll resolve this then, no chance of anyone investigating this for an out-of-date version.