My monitor blew on November 15th, and I was down for about a week. When I got back on line this problem began to manifest itself. I have searched this site and found nothing that addresses this problem, even obliquely.
- My PC is running on Windows 7.
- All software (including Flash, the browsers, and the download assistants) is up-to-date.
- I use Mozilla Firefox, and this was freshly installed.
- Anti-virus is Avast, and I run a boot-time scan at least once per week. I also use Super Anti-Spyware, Malwarebytes, and Spybot, which I run about every day or so, and (since this problem started) sometimes several times a day. I also use CCCleaner, and Dr. Web, though not as often.
- Also, I find myself in South Korea these days, which may or may not have anything to do with this. (Google and many other sites, for example, keep forcing me to use the Korean version of the site, which screws up search results, even when I have my options set otherwise. So clearly my settings are being overridden.)
- I use FlashVideoDownloader or DownloadHelper to expedite the downloads.
The problem: whenever I visit a blog on Tumblr (I do not do much surfing except when I need a specific piece of information for my own blog, and rarely use YouTube: but earlier today I tried that and the problem seems confined to Tumblr), occasionally there are videos that I would like to watch. However, my connection out here in the boon docks is dicey (or "something else" is going on), so the best solution has always been to download the video and then watch it later using my own players and so forth.
Recently -- since I got back on line after that week or so away from the internet -- the first video I try to access that day opens/downloads without issue (for months I have found that many videos will not play in the browser, they seem to hang during the buffering process and never get beyond Tunblr's three-dot stage; but it used to be that in all cases the video could be downloaded seconds after the play arrow was clicked: FlashVideoDownloader's arrow turns blue as soon as this is possible, even if the video itself never starts to play in the browser). But after that first one or two, all subsequent videos fail to open. I used to think that this might be an availability issue, but today I tried a video that failed all day yesterday, and it opened and downloaded without issue.
I have noticed that when I go to FlashVideoDownloader to download the first video, there is a white "page" that instantly descends down to the toolbar (as if there were a nozzle sucking this page down -- that is what it looks like -- toward a point on the toolbar where nothing that I can see is open). Once I notice that happening, all other videos associated with that Tumblr account fail. Sometimes if I go to another blog, the first video there plays, but subsequentl videos do not, after noticing the same white page effect.
This has become more than annoying! The suction seems to indicate some sort of malware. Sometimes running all of the above-mentioned software resolves the issue, sometimes not. Sometimes they find something (generally cookies), sometimes nothing. Is there a way to determine what it causing the problem, and after that, blocking it?
I have cataracts on both eyes (left eye is totally blind, and the right one is getting there), so sometimes doing things is difficult. Any help anyone might be able to give will be very welcome! Thank you all for your time.
-- Daniel M. Burkus
- My PC is running on Windows 7.
- All software (including Flash, the browsers, and the download assistants) is up-to-date.
- I use Mozilla Firefox, and this was freshly installed.
- Anti-virus is Avast, and I run a boot-time scan at least once per week. I also use Super Anti-Spyware, Malwarebytes, and Spybot, which I run about every day or so, and (since this problem started) sometimes several times a day. I also use CCCleaner, and Dr. Web, though not as often.
- Also, I find myself in South Korea these days, which may or may not have anything to do with this. (Google and many other sites, for example, keep forcing me to use the Korean version of the site, which screws up search results, even when I have my options set otherwise. So clearly my settings are being overridden.)
- I use FlashVideoDownloader or DownloadHelper to expedite the downloads.
The problem: whenever I visit a blog on Tumblr (I do not do much surfing except when I need a specific piece of information for my own blog, and rarely use YouTube: but earlier today I tried that and the problem seems confined to Tumblr), occasionally there are videos that I would like to watch. However, my connection out here in the boon docks is dicey (or "something else" is going on), so the best solution has always been to download the video and then watch it later using my own players and so forth.
Recently -- since I got back on line after that week or so away from the internet -- the first video I try to access that day opens/downloads without issue (for months I have found that many videos will not play in the browser, they seem to hang during the buffering process and never get beyond Tunblr's three-dot stage; but it used to be that in all cases the video could be downloaded seconds after the play arrow was clicked: FlashVideoDownloader's arrow turns blue as soon as this is possible, even if the video itself never starts to play in the browser). But after that first one or two, all subsequent videos fail to open. I used to think that this might be an availability issue, but today I tried a video that failed all day yesterday, and it opened and downloaded without issue.
I have noticed that when I go to FlashVideoDownloader to download the first video, there is a white "page" that instantly descends down to the toolbar (as if there were a nozzle sucking this page down -- that is what it looks like -- toward a point on the toolbar where nothing that I can see is open). Once I notice that happening, all other videos associated with that Tumblr account fail. Sometimes if I go to another blog, the first video there plays, but subsequentl videos do not, after noticing the same white page effect.
This has become more than annoying! The suction seems to indicate some sort of malware. Sometimes running all of the above-mentioned software resolves the issue, sometimes not. Sometimes they find something (generally cookies), sometimes nothing. Is there a way to determine what it causing the problem, and after that, blocking it?
I have cataracts on both eyes (left eye is totally blind, and the right one is getting there), so sometimes doing things is difficult. Any help anyone might be able to give will be very welcome! Thank you all for your time.
-- Daniel M. Burkus
