I was having the exact same problems mentioned - Uninstalled/installed Flash
and Shockwave. Used the appropriate uninstaller, searched for rogue .dll
extension files, cleaned out the C:\Windows\System32\Macromedia\Flash files,
looked at the manage add-ons, posted on this forum, e-mailed Adobe, spoke with
them on the phone and even uninstalled IE7 and went back to IE 6. None of that
helped.
Reading through some of the responses on various posts, I found the following:
Uninstall flash with the latest Adobe stand alone uninstaller
Download Complete Standalone installer Flash Player 9 earlier version from
http://www.softwarepatch.com/internet/flash.html Uninstall shockwave with the latest Adobe stand alone uninstaller
Download Stand-alone installers for Shockwave Player: previous versions only
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_18629 Note: Users of Windows XP operating system must use the 8.5.1 Shockwave player
or higher. For more information, please seeInstalling the Shockwave Player on
Microsoft Windows XP (TechNote tn_15924).
Windows Shockwave Player 9.0.0.434
I tried this last night - one and then the other one - and they both are
running fine.
Hope this helps someone else.