Embedded flash file loading fully on reload but not first try.

[feesta]

I am fairly new to flash so bear with me.

I am working on a page that allows a user to upload an image through php/mysql, then the file name is passed to flash when the flash file is loaded ie. flash.swf?file=88388543828.jpg. I can make it run from the server correctly but if the flash file is not cached, it doesn't load or at least that is what I'm observing. The background layout, which is in the bottom most layer of the flash file, loads but nothing else the first time. If I hit reload on the browser (IE or firefox), it loads correctly and everything is peachy. The first time around, if I right-click and hit 'forward', the next frame is loaded and the movie continues correctly.

I'm using actionscript 2.0 and loading bottom-up. I guess I don't have enough experience to tell if this is a basic setting being wrong or bad code or something else. I've unsuccessfully googled around for a while and tried adding a preloader to the beginning.

Any help is appreciated!

PS. is my swf unusually large at >400k? there are no images. a few buttons. some scripts but not a ton. an externally linked movie. I guess to deal with the movie, we use almost 6000 frames. Is there a way to shrink this down? (we need frames to match up with the movie frames which is ~3min. long).

Thanks!!

[feesta]

I finally got around to troubleshooting this problem since the project is nearing an end. In the first frame, I load a jpg dynamically. there is also an if/else based on a variable loaded in the url.
if(ul==1) gotoandplay(2);
else {...... gotoandplay(4);}

the gotoandplay(2) was the culprit. with it, two or three of the buttons on the next frame consistently wouldn't load the first time the flash file is loaded. when you press the browser reload, it loads fine. I commented out that whole chunk so it plays straight through frame 1 into 2 and everything loads fine.

does someone have an explanation for this? even some guesses? I wasnt getting any error output from flash so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks!