every time i get on vmk, on the login screen i get "you need to download the latest shockwave, yada,yada..." but i can still login fine. this still applies true, but now the orange loading bar only goes about a quarter and then stops, for more that 30 miniutes. I dont think it is loading any more then, any suggestions? (i already tried the "clear the cookies" thing.)

Have you deleted temp internet files? You should do that every so often. It bogs down your computer and you will have no virtual memory left.

Upgrade to the newest version of Flash. I had to do that too.