Adobe Flashplayer Conflict

Hi ...Ive been having this problem lately and have heard that its to do with Adobe flash player but there are no instructions on how to sort it out, so was wondering if anyone in here could help.

I play two flash games in Facebook and lately was asked to update to the newest version of adobe flash, which I did, since then I cant use other media players like, WMP, VLC and Cyberlink PowerDVD

I dont have any browsers open when I use the media players.

As soon as the player tries to load what I want to watch it completely freezes and hangs.. I then have to push the button to turn pc off and eventually back on again.

:cry:cry:cry

Im Using WinXP Pro - SP3
IE 8.0.6