Browsers freeze on live cam stream sites - flash issue?

[GlobetrotterSA]

Hi

When I view any live cam stream/feed at sites like justin.tv or ustream.tv (or any other live cam feed site where flash is used) my browser freezes after a few seconds and gives me an "IE/Firefox has encountered a problem" type message, if I click on more details, it displays:

"Error signature AppName: firefox.exe AppVer: 1.9.0.3105 ModName: ipcamera_mjpeg.ax
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 000aba97"

I get this "ipcamera_mjpeg.ax" error in both Firefox 3.0.1 and Internet Explorer 7. I can however view regular flash sites like youtube, it's only on sites where there are live cam feeds which utilizes flash that I get the error. I have uninstalled Flash player en re-installed it, still get the same error. My current version is Adobe Flash Player 9,0,124,0. There are several people reporting this error online and everyone's convinced it's flash that's the problem, yet nobody has a solution (so far).

Note that I could view all these live cam streams as mentioned above a few months ago without any problems. Nothing has changed on my system except maybe a flash version upgrade along the way? Is there a problem with flash player 9.0.124.0 and viewing live cam feeds? I have tried version 10 beta 2 as well, still get the same error. I have a webcam installed but don't use an ipcamera. The webcam works fine, use it on SKype etc. without any problems.

Flash + live cam feeds = problem. Anyone else experiencing the same problem?
If you do, do you perhaps use Realtek sound card? I'm guessing that either the latest flash player version is buggy or that existing hardware is incompatible with it. I'm running WinXP.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

[guns1inger]

ipcamera_mjpeg.ax appears to be some sort of ActiveX control specific to these sites. A quick google search only found posts by you regarding this problem in other forums, none of which have been responded to - busy boy. One of these had a link to a site that crashes your browser, and FWIW, it crashed mine to (FF 3.0.1).

I suspect that the control is simply FUBAR, and the best you can do it report it to the sites and hope they fix it.

[Bjs]

You never know but you might want to have a peek over here to see someone else asking the question

http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t115358.html

You should at least do one online virus scan and follow thew advice provided, just to check that nothing suspicious is at play and the cause of the problem.

[GlobetrotterSA]

To Bjs:
Yes, I saw that thread but its closed and I'm sure it's not spyware-related. A lot of people complain about this sudden crash error on live stream sites but they (site admins) normally just pass the buck back to the user, saying the site is not at fault. Will do an online virus scan just to be sure.

To guns1inger:
If it's an ActiveX control these live video sites use, then surely every person visiting that site in IE7 and FFox 3.0.1 will get the same error as me, also causing their browsers to crash, since they'll all the utilizing the same ActiveX control to view the feed in the first place?

Since not everyone is getting these errors at those sites, it leads me to believe that it's hardware/software on my computer that is not compatible with the latest flash player (or ActiveX control).

I will try and report it to the sites in question, but since they all crash my browser before the page is finished loading, getting contact details might be tricky.

If someone else is experiencing the same issue and get the same error, please post it here. I'm still wondering whether it's an issue where only people with similar hardware/software get the same error, therefore pointing to some incompatibility.

This problem is really affecting me now, I even get the same error when visiting one of Skype's website download pages (where they use some flash video in the page), browser crashes of course which makes it difficult for me to even just navigate to their download page. So I need to find a solution to this.

[guns1inger]

Like I said in my post, I got the same error when I went there, and I never go to live cam sites, so this would be the first time this control was downloaded to my system.

[micromouse]

All good advice up there, but ineffective I'm afraid. I too am now suffering from the dreaded flash error ipcamera_mjpeg.ax. It pops up in YouTube whenever I try to do a video response because YouTube now defaults to your webcam as the first source of input and they have NO way to change that so it would look for like your stored videos first or have you try to upload one.

Anyway, there is no updated file that will allow ipcamera_mjpeg.ax to continue operating normally, but the GOOD NEWS is - you do NOT need it to perform flash webcam operations!! I'm not sure what it does actually, might be used by only one particular app for web cam operation locally. In any case, I fixed the problem quite easily by searching for it on my system (it's used by many different webcam apps...I only found one instance on my system in an old webcam app that came with my camera) and the simply renamed it with a .bak extension. Then, PROBLEM SOLVED!! I do have to name it back to use the proprietary webcam app that came with my webcam, but I use it so rarely it's not a hassle at all. I will start looking for a replacement that does NOT rely on that file to fix the problem permanently.

So there you go. Just rename your file and you'll be fixed. Long term, when you find the app using that file, FIND A REPLACEMENT and uninstall it ASAP.

[GlobetrotterSA]

Thanks for the post micromouse. I discussed the same issue on another forum where I mentioned the same solution but I forgot to update this forum with the info as well! But yes, renaming the file did the trick for me as well.

Here's the thread on the other forum I mentioned where the same issue is discussed.