On Windows 7 some students get blank screens
Jul 13, 2011
I have just this week received complaints from three different students taking different lessons who are all encountering a blank white screen when taking the lesson.
None of the lessons have been updated in a long time. So far the only common thread I am seeing is that they are all on Windows 7.
I am suspicious of the new flash player because I ran into a problem watching youtube videos last week for several days until I discovered how to turn off the hardware acceleration. I can't seem to recreate their problem.
I have remote logged into one of the computers and tried it on IE and downloaded Chrome as an alternative. I tried turning off hardware acceleration and it made now difference. For that student nothing worked.
For another student with a patient father, they couldn't get it to work at all in Firefox but could get it to work on Internet Explorer but on IE 9 it will work and then hang. If you add my site to trusted sites in IE9, they get the blank screen like firefox. If they turn that off they see the course until it hangs.
All 3 students were successfully using the course and then something happened that made it stop working. I am looking to see if anyone else has heard of this and has figured out what is going on.
I know that the flash player has changed recently but so far adjusting settings doesn't cause me to recreate the problem. Windows 7 is changing all the time.
If anyone has insight or advise, please let me know. I am stumped.
12 Replies
Hi Deborah & welcome to Heroes,
Were the courses created with Presenter 5 or Presenter '09?
Ahh good question. I researched this further and it looks like we upgraded in March but the lessons in question are from February. So assume Presenter 5.
Is there a way to look into one of the generated files to be sure?
Is this what your courses look like? If so, see the link below:
http://www.articulate.com/blog/flash-player-10-support-for-presenter-5/
No that isn't the problem. The screen is entirely blank. No loading bar. You can't right click to access flash menu. I did make sure that plugins were installed and working.
Hi Deborah,
Do you have a link to the course so that I can test it on my machine?
Hello Brian! I am getting the same screen as shown in your response. What is the solution?
Thanks
I sent the login information in a private message...
In your last posting you asked for access to the course to see if you could recreate the problem. I haven't been able to recreate it but I have seen it first hand via remote access to a student's computer.
In order for you to access the course go to:...[see private message]
The student's that reported problems encountered the problem on firefox 5 and on chrome (I forget the latest version but its this week's version) and IE9 all on Windows 7. One student could see it on IE9 with the site NOT in the trusted sites but it regularly hung. I tried it with and without hardware acceleration turned on in flash. Flash level is latest: 10,3,181,34
Try accessing lesson #24-H2 or lesson #11-R6 for example.
I just checked on one of my three kids having problems and she had made some progress even though the last phone message confirmed issues after updating windows 7 so I left them a message asking for more information on what they did.
Thanks for looking into this, Deb
Hi Suneet & welcome to Heroes,
To run the Flash 10 Updater software on Windows 7, you'll need to use the workaround in the link below:
http://www.articulate.com/forums/83545-post13.html
I sent the following as part of a longer private reply to Brian:
I had sent your email to the LMS developer... [edited for brevity]
I sent you a link so that you could recreate the problem. That means simply launching the program. If it works for you it works. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
I had 3 students on Windows 7 who had a problem. All in a short period of time. One actually installed vista on their machine because they were sick of problems with windows 7 (odd but that's what they did). One completed it at the library. The 3rd student., well they have gotten through the course and I haven't heard how they fixed it yet.
I think there is some problem out there that we encountered. Unless we run into again I won't pursue this anymore. If you encounter any other reports of blank white screens using Windows 7 please send me an email if you would.
Thanks -d-
We are also having problems with end users reporting issues (freezing/problems loading) with Windows 7, can someone comment as the fix we can post on our website? Some users have been able to successfully use it after going back to an xp machine, but this is not a global fix.
Many thanks,
Jann
Hi Jenn,
Due to the many variations of system configurations and bandwidth, it would be difficult to advise a blanket solution for all of your users who experience issues. Perhaps the best place to start though, would be to mention the minimum system requirements for viewing Studio '09 content:
Flash Player 6.0.79 or later (http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash) (Flash Player 7 or later is recommended), and one of the following browsers:
WINDOWS: Internet Explorer 6 and later, Firefox 1.x and later, Safari 3 and later, Google Chrome, Opera 9.5 and later
MACINTOSH: Firefox 1.x and later, Safari 3 and later
LINUX: Firefox 1.x and later
If you notice a more specific issue/pattern with your users, we'd be happy to troubleshoot that on an individual basis. I hope that's helpful!
Thanks, Peter!
I will be adding this information for our students:
If you encounter issues viewing your presentation and you use Windows 7, please review the following.
System Requirements:
WINDOWS: Internet Explorer 6 and later, Firefox 1.x and later, Safari 3 and later, Google Chrome, Opera 9.5 and later
MACINTOSH: Firefox 1.x and later, Safari 3 and later
LINUX: Firefox 1.x and later
Recommendations:
Note that Adobe has documented installation problems with the Flash Player and Windows 7.
Recommendation 1: Install the most recent version of Flash: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
Recommendation 2: Uninstall flash and the reinstall:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/191/tn_19166.html#main_Uninstall_the_older_Flash_Player_version
See item #3.
I hope this helps!
Jann
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