Safari & Flash

Question

I have a Macbook running 10.6.8 with 4 GB RAM (I doubled the standard memory when I bought it 5 years ago so it would last longer). I don't intend getting a new Mac just yet. But recently I am having a problem which I've seen discussed many many times on the internet but always without a satisfactory solution.
I am using Safari 5.1.10, which I understand is the latest version capable of running on Snow Leopard, but when I visit some sites they urge me to update my version of Safari. But much worse is the problems I have when I visit sites with videos built-in, often starting without my asking. If I have several tabs open, even sometimes when only one, everything freezes repeatedly, the ball spins, and eventually things start again, only to stop again shortly.
I have used Activity Monitor and found that sometimes Safari is trying to take 120% or more of CPU. Istat Pro sometimes shows temperatures of over 90, and several times everything stopped, a dark grey screen rolled down and told me to reboot.
Obviously I wasn't happy with this, so I disabled Flash, and all the problems went away - but I can't watch much video now!
I can get by without Flash if I have to, but that's an unattractive option. But would an earlier version of Flash perform better? (I seemed to have no problems a while back.)
I could upgrade to 10.7, but I fear that wouldn't help much.
Or I could switch to Chrome which (according to reports) doesn't have this problem? I'd like to be loyal to Apple, but that only goes so far if there's a problem that I can't get an answer to.
Is there a definitive answer on this please?

Answer 1

Try resetting Safari. Safari/Reset Safari.
Try un-installing and then re-installing.
Adobe Flash Uninstaller
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player updates available for OS X on October 24, 2014
You might want to consider staying away from Chrome. It is a resource hog. Try Firefox, which is still being updated for 10.6.
Firefox
Check that your computer is compatible with Mountain Lion/Mavericks/Yosemite.
To check the model number hold down the option/alt key, go to the Apple menu and select System Information.
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) model number 5,1 or higher
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (More is better - 4 GB minimum seems to be the consensus)
8 GB or more of available space
Applications Compatibility (2)
Do a backup before installing.