Chrome Updated, Now Flash Won't Work In Firefox

[A.D. Burrows]

Thanks first of all to anybody for your kind attention.

Last Thursday, (28/JN/2012), Google Chrome updated. Ever since then,
Chrome will not load and Flash applications will not play in Firefox.
(Firefox V13.0.1 is my regular browser, I only keep Chrome around in
case Ff can't do something I need.) When I try to load Chrome, the
mouse pointer turns into a bouncy Chrome icon, a Chrome bar appears in
Task Manager, then the mouse pointer reverts, the bar disappears and
no Chrome window ever opens. In Firefox, when for instance I try to
watch a Youtube video, all I see is a black box which allows me the
option to block that video and nothing else. I've tried playing other
Flash apps, none of them work.

I have Flash-Aid 2.2.3 installed in Ff. I tried using it to re-install
Adobe Flash Player, both stable and beta versions; no joy. I tried
using apt-get to un-install and re-install Google Chrome, (I
accidentally installed Chromium instead and it won't play Flash apps
either); no joy. I tried using apt-get to un-install and re-install
the flash player, several times and in several ways; no joy. I tried
using KPackageKit to install Gnash, (because it's easier and it was
possible); no joy. I even tried installing KlamAV in case I took a
virus that's affecting Flash; I'm having trouble with the installation
writing to it's own directories, but that's a matter for another time
and anyway I was just being thorough.

I'm running an AMD XP-M 1900+ system with 768MB RAM and a Geforce 5500
card, driver version 173. I'm using Kubuntu V10.04, KDE V4.4.5, core
version 2.6.32-41-generic. I'm pretty sure everything else works.

Please, how can I get Flash apps to work again? (Please note that I'm
not a very advanced user, I'll probably need some hand-holding through
this.)
-- Allan