UPDATE: I (for the most part) fixed my problem by rolling my Internet Explorer back to ie10 and turning off the auto update to new version. (tools - about internet explorer - should have the check box there) My computer came with ie10 but had updated itself to ie11 which apparently is barely functional with flash. I'm not a computer guru but after reading articles online it seems that either microsoft has dropped or limited its efforts with flash compatability or vice versa.
I also did the steps here: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/flash-player-games-video-or.html (especially the deleting the flash folder steps, this seems to be the most effective)
I used my Norton to clean my cache, defrag and under tasks I cleaned my registry and did a full system scan for viruses.
I've had to do this more than once already so it's a pain which is why I finally gave in and downloaded mozilla firefox as an alternative when I don't feel like going through all the other things I have to do.
Good luck everyone.