P3 171 Problem with Adobe Flash on Windows 10

Hi, when I got my Acer P3 171 I had no end of trouble getting video to play properly.

It was fine in Win 8 but, of course, I needed to upgrade to 8.1 and then the video was garbage.

Now, somehow, Win 10 has forced a load, even though I've avoided it like the plague.

Of course, now the graphics is messed up again.

I've been able to fix everything EXCEPT TV shows running on the Internet in Adobe Flash.

All our TV providers use Flash on their websites so I don't have a choice about it.

But now, Internet videos running in Adobe Flash stutter terribly. I've tried hardware acceleration on and off but it makes almost no difference.

Thing is, this is an i5 processor so the video should at least be able to handle Adobe Flash. I simply don't get it.

Any help ??????????

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hgmartin9

Go to control panel>Flash Player>Updates>Check Now.

Make sure you have Show small icons view in control panel to quickly locate Flash Player

PhilipW

Thanks for the reply. But I'm not sure I follow. I'm not trying to update Adobe Flash on the tablet/notebook. I already have the latest version.

The problem is it doesn't run with the Acer recommended video driver for the i5 Intel chipset - which is just the one Win 10 installs by default.

Acer appears to have no interest in supporting the video issue on this computer. They've simply left users like us high and dry. This was the same over a year ago when I obtained the unit and attempted to upgrade it from Win 8 to 8.1.

As i said, when you upgrade to Win 10, Acer merely recommends to allow Win 10 to apply the latest driver. But it doesn't work properly.

Interestingly, the 'Films and TV' app that comes with Win 10 plays videos very nicely, even with the latest driver.

But I don't like it because it can't handle subtitles. Microsoft have now (grudgingly) included the ability to play srt subtitles if you have the separate file (it didn't even have that ability until recently). But you have to locate and load the subtitle file manually for each video.

But the app doesn't recognize embedded subtitles. it plays the video fine, but it can't access the embedded subtitles. I can't imagine why not. IF MPC and VLC (freebie players) can do it, surely Microsoft could do it, too!

I managed to get it all working, however.

I had an old (2013) version of the chipset video driver I had downloaded previously directly from Intel when I was having the same problem upgrading from Win 8 to Win 8.1 a year or so ago.

It's Intel HD Graphics 4000 driver 10.18.10.3304 dated 2013-09-09.

Unfortunately, Intel doesn't have it available on their website any more (I checked). And Acer never had it.

If you can obtain a copy, don't install it immediately. Let the system settle down for a day after the Win 10 upgrade, and then install it. You may need the cradle driver from Acer installed first. That is available on the Acer website.

For a day after the Win 10 install, my P3 171 wouldn't play Internet Flash videos, and even HTML 5 on Youtube was not very good. Local videos wouldn't play properly in Media Player Classic or VLC either.

When I eventually found the 2013 video driver and installed it, suddenly everything played cleanly. The Internet videos that require Adobe Flash play perfectly too. Full screen with no stuttering or anything.

You may have to disable hardware acceleration in the Flash settings, but that's all.

Acer could be nice guys and just supply this 2013 Intel video driver as an option on their website. But I requested that back over a year ago for Win 8.1 upgrade. They wouldn't do it then so I guess they're not going do it now, either.

So, good luck!

If enough of us bug them, perhaps they'll actually deign to provide some support.

hgmartin9

This is what I would do because your system has two upgrades over original Win 8. A clean install of windows 10 will fix many problems. Your license for Win 10 is digitally signed on Microsoft site as long as it was an authorized upgrade. Go here and create install tool:

Media Creation Tool

Be sure and read instructions on site. Especially about Custom install. This will give you a clean install with no bloat software. Run Windows update a few times after installing. I have done this on three different systems and have had great success. You may have to go to Acers site and install platform drivers if you have issues like sound. Sometimes these drivers are needed even though they are for previous system. Then Win 10 will handle updates.

PhilipW

Thanks for your comments.

(Side note - I like Win 8.1 now. But now MS has fixed it so it works pretty well they're forcing an update to Win 10 !!!!)

I probably should have done a clean install but my wife uses the tablet every day and has her stuff all over it.

The suggestion of a clean install wouldn't have gone over well.

I've done it a few times on other systems and is probably the best way to go, I agree.

But, would that sort out the video issue? I suspect it wouldn't.

I got the P3 171 for a really great price. So I just snapped it up. But it's always had the video issue. At first I thought it was the individual unit. So I took it back and got another. I deliberately picked one with a manufacture date around 10 months different. But it had the same video issue, so it clearly wasn't a bad motherboard or something. The video drivers from the Acer site didn't help, so I have no confidence in them. And, when I called Acer, I couldn't find anyone who was willing to even care.

But perhaps most people don't notice the issue.

I have a lot of video entertainment - TV, Movies, Documentaries etc. And I put it all on a network drive (NAS). I convert all my DVDs to video. I bought the tablet so I could watch the stuff on the couch or in bed.

But then I found it sucked as a media player, because of the video issue. I'd have thought a truly visually oriented system like a tablet that can't even play simple video files was an issue, but perhaps it's just me.

I generally use MPC or VLC for viewing video. They're pretty complete, whereas other video players either don't play particular formats or don't show subtitles or not embedded subtitles or only show particular formats of subtitles (or only external subtitles - the new video app in Win10) and such.

But they wouldn't play on the tablet. And it wouldn't play Internet video like TV shows and documentaries and YouTube videos either. And surely a tablet that won't even play YouTube is an issue!

It'd play stuff in Windows Media Player OK, but that's a pretty limited app. But it played little or no Internet video.

That's when I had to jump through all the hoops trying to get a working media viewing system.

I guess your P3 doesn't have this issue, though?

And, on another issue, when is someone going to come out with a touchscreen video player for the Windows platform. One that allows you to use swipes to move back and forward? Not even the Films and TV app in Win10 recognizes screen swipes. Wheareas even the crappiest Android video players allow that.

The new VLC app was supposed to but I never got it to work properly on the tablet. Maybe I should try it again?

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