Flash Player Shuts off PC

Question

Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for any help.  PIaying a Flash game on Facebook or watching Flash movies shuts off machine.  I am at wits end. 
I recently bought a Gateway desktop.  The specs:
- Intel Quad core
- 8GB Ram
- Vista Ultimate 64
- NVidia GT 120 1GB
- Realtek HD Audio
- Some crappy DVD burner
- Apex? TV Tuner
- Some internal usb card reader
The computer has 3 things installed that didn’t come with the machine.  CS4 Master Collection, World of Warcraft, and Avast anti-virus. 
When I play FarmVille or FarmTown on Facebook (flash based game) or watch Flash Player based movies, the machine just turns off after about 10 minutes.  I have searched forums for a week and think I have covered all my bases.
There are no errors in the system log before it shuts down, just an error talking about an unexpected shutdown afterwards.
The machine runs World of Warcraft for hours at max framerate and doesn’t overheat.  I have downloaded fan speed applications and CPU/GPU heat monitoring software and everything is fine.  Flash games don’t even move the needle.
The drivers for the GT 120 video card and the real tek audio card are the newest from the manufacturer.  All windows updates are up to date.
I have used the Flash removal tool, cleaned the registry where I could and completely reinstalled Flash Player.  This happens in all browsers, it occurs in IE7, IE8 (upgraded to try it), Chrome, and Firefox.
At this point, Gateway support says to reload from factory and try it again.  But what I couldn’t exactly get the support rep to say was that Flash isn’t supported because it’s not pre-installed.  Once I install the Flash Player it now has 3rd party applications, and there’s where I have the problem.
I understand that a browser plug-in should not be able to just completely shut down the machine, there has to be some hardware or driver issue.  I am at a loss, the machine runs like a champ and never faults for anything else. It just comes across some function it seems after a certain period of time that the machine can’t handle.
Running the machine in safe-mode with hardware video acceleration off at 800x600 still causes the problem. I had to run the machine in Safe-Mode with Networking though to access Facebook.
Things I have yet to try:
- Removing half my ram, trying it, if it still doesn’t work, swap with the other half I took out (checking for bad ram)
- Removing my anti-virus.
- Take some flash animation I have laying around and run it in the browser in safe-mode without networking.
Is there anything else I could possibly try? 
-J

Answer 1

I am having the same exact problem on a completely different machine.  I have actually created a post within these forums and have yet to get a response. 
Of course the guys here at Adobe aren't going to admit that their product can cause such a failure in a machine.  I assure you it can and it is.  I have done a battery of tests on my computer, I have replace every single piece of hardware in it.  I have formatted and re-installed windows several times and I have made sure that I have all of the current drivers.
Nothing I do solves this problem.  I have downloaded the windows debugging program to try to do a memory.dmp debug and guess what.  My computer doesn't create one when this happens.  There is no error message to prove anything went wrong.  The only thing I get is a Critical Error in the Event Viewer that says there was a Kernel 41 Power loss failure.
The problem is, without a doubt, a compatability issue with flash player and a device driver, probably video, on our computers.. I just don't know which one and if there is any way to fix it.