I ran in to this one myself while trying to download EA’s Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath. When attempting to open The EA Download manager I got the error below:
Flash plugin required. Select OK to launch web browser for Adobe’s Flash Plug-in download.
The problem with this, is that I clicked OK on multiple occasions and let it install Flash both from Firefox and from IE. Regardless of the install method, the download manager would come up with this error every time.
The solution ended up being:
- Completely uninstall any reference to Flash from your computer via Add/Remove Programs.
- Set Internet Explorer as the default browser (I’m not actually sure if this step is completely necessary, but it’s what I had done when I actually got the program to work)
- Attempt to launch the Download Manager
- Click the OK button
- Let the Flash player reinstall itself
- Attempt to run the EA application again
I’m not sure exactly what the DM is looking for when it checks for the player, but it must be something only generated on a new install of Flash, and not placed there on an update. I had actually completely uninstalled the download manager as well once, but not at the time that I had got it to work. If the above steps don’t work for you, try uninstalling the download manager before you try steps 1-5 again.
Responses to “EA Download Manager – “Flash Plugin Required.””
September 8th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
This solution wasn’t working for me, but I found an alternative that might be helpful for anyone else with this problem.
I kept reinstalling flash/eadm with no luck. I finally fixed the problem though… Who knows why they decided to build eadm with flash, but you can actually edit the HTML files to bypass the Flash plugin detection. The easiest way to do so is the following:
1. Go to C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EADM\html
2. Open LoginWin.html
3. Remove and
You can repeat these steps for any of the HTML files in that folder. After hours of frustration, Spore is finally downloading for me. Good luck!
September 9th, 2008 at 7:52 am
If your on Vista, your best trying changing the compatability mode to XP and running as administrator when launching the Download Manager before trying this.
December 27th, 2008 at 1:46 am
One other helpful note. Dont update the flash player unless you really need to and really know why you need to. Sometimes the update will render your flash player useless and then good luck finding an old version of the flash player.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:28 am
I resolved this porblem by going to windows–>system32–>Macromed->Flash and right click on FlashUtil10a And run as administrator (I used run as XP. After that just run FlashUtil10a and it updates flash player. I did this on vista32. This might also work by just clicking FlashUtil10a file. Please let me know if this helped and sry for bad english ^^
February 1st, 2009 at 12:58 pm
@K3ttu
Tested on win7 64 Bit. It works. I can start ea download manager.
Thanks a lot.
February 10th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
wow thanks @k3ttu. Ive been trying to figure that out for ever. So annoying always popping up at startup
February 15th, 2009 at 12:00 am
@k3ttu’s method:
on vista32 ultimate, works; can now start EADM immediately.
Also note I did not have to have IE set as default browser.
thanks. what a strange fix, as reinstalling flash 10 didn’t help (my 1st attempt b4 searching on prob).
February 17th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Here is Adobe’s office support for this problem
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_19166
February 18th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
LOST Sole’s worked and I used a couple others hopefully wont have to keep doing this again and again, ea needs to fix this….
February 27th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
None of these work for me. The game has worked before, it just recently started the Flash Plugin Required message. Any other suggestions?
March 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
@k3ttu
Thanks so much I had been trying for a while to figure this darn thing out lol, and IE was misbehaving XD
April 29th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
VISTA Ultimate (32bit)
E A Download Manager work around.
From this file path:
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Levels
Copy all levels (Folders)
Paste them here (Do not cut or move COPY) to
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\xpack\Levels
Do not use the EA Download Manager (Close it)
Click on the Default BF2 icon and select your Map/level. That’s it.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Sometimes, if the installation only works on admin accounts and constantly denies eadm’s start on normal user acounts on xp you will need to edit rights on flash keys in the registry….
especially on flash 10.x and above.
grant wrting – rights to all users you need @ least to the keys named like “ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlashxxx”.
After that you should be able to start EADM again.
Hope i helped out a bit….
May 7th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Is there a way i can run C&C 3 control center after downloading it from download manager, bc i know it is easy with DVD, but i dont have it.
I tried the thru programs>electronicatrs>C&C 3
but it show download manager after electronic arts.
June 11th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
@ K3ttu
Yes that worked! 32 bit and i didnt even have to set IE7 as my default browser! You rock!
June 20th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
@K3ttu
Props to you, worked on my Vista 64bit Home edition, except I had to open sysWOW64. Thanks man.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Dear LOST souls, hit ctrl+alt+del, under Processes tab, look for these processes: apache.exe , ntrayfw.exe , nsvcip.exe , nsvcappflt.exe , nsvclog.exe , if you see any of them, end them. Make sure flash and EADM are installed, and IE is default browser, then launch it. download, restart, play!