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Screen Tearing on firefox 55.0.3

  • 13 cavab
  • 33 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by Happy112

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when ever i scroll up or down there is screen tearing within firefox, i've tried with addons disabled and i've disabled hardware acceleration and it's still tearing. i'm on win 10 64bit, using geforce experience with nvidia driver 385.41 (latest at the moment) and firefox is the 32bit version. taking screen shots isn't possible so please don't request that.

when ever i scroll up or down there is screen tearing within firefox, i've tried with addons disabled and i've disabled hardware acceleration and it's still tearing. i'm on win 10 64bit, using geforce experience with nvidia driver 385.41 (latest at the moment) and firefox is the 32bit version. taking screen shots isn't possible so please don't request that.

Chosen solution

Every solution to this problem that I've found so far is all about disabling hardware acceleration or updating grapics drivers - none of which worked for you.

Would you please check this setting :

3-bar menu (or 'Tools') => Advanced => General tab => under 'Browsing': 'Disable smooth scrolling' should be unchecked (at least that worked for some others)


Another thing to try :

Type in the address bar about:config (press Enter) (promise to be careful, if asked) Type and look for the preference : gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.force-enabled and set its value to true

However : if that doesn't make a difference, change the value back to false

Read this answer in context 👍 3

All Replies (13)

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In order to better assist you with your issue please provide us with a screenshot. If you need help to create a screenshot, please see How do I create a screenshot of my problem?

Once you've done this, attach the saved screenshot file to your forum post by clicking the Browse... button below the Post your reply box. This will help us to visualize the problem.

Thank you!


Try to disable multi-process tabs in Firefox. You can disable multi-process tabs in Firefox by setting the related prefs to false on the about:config page.

browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/

Type about:config<enter> in the address bar. If a warning screen comes up, press the Be Careful button. At the top of the screen is a search bar.

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In case the above doesn't do the trick :

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration in Firefox. Since this feature was added to Firefox it has gradually improved but there are still a few glitches.

You will need to restart Firefox for this to take effect so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.,) and then perform these steps:

In Firefox 54 and below:

  1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac, Linux).
  2. Select the Advanced panel and the General tab.
  3. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
  4. Close Firefox completely and then restart Firefox to see if the problem persists.

In Firefox 55 and above:

  1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac, Linux).
  2. Select the General panel.
  3. Under Performance, uncheck Use recommended performance settings. Additional settings will be displayed.
    Fx55Performance-disableHWA
  4. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
  5. Close Firefox completely and then restart Firefox to see if the problem persists.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

If the problem is resolved, you should check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in these Knowledge base articles:

Thank you.

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i appreciate the help guys, i should be clearer.

1) I've already disabled hardware acceleration 2) I've already tried with all Add-Ons disabled 3) I've reinstalled my graphics driver and currently using the latest (385.41 Driver Version) 4) a screenshot does NOT capture the problem and yes I have tried many times, something that happens in less than a second is difficult to capture.

All of which I've mentioned. Since the first post I've installed the 64 bit version of Firefox hoping it might help but that's just wishful thinking.

Thank you Fred for your suggestion but unfortunately disabling multi- process hasn't had an effect.

If anyone has any other suggestions I don't mind trying them out.

Thank You

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mabz said

i appreciate the help guys, i should be clearer.
1) I've already disabled hardware acceleration

No, you were perfectly clear, but I apologize for overlooking the fact that you already disabled hardware acceleration ........

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Seçilmiş Həll

Every solution to this problem that I've found so far is all about disabling hardware acceleration or updating grapics drivers - none of which worked for you.

Would you please check this setting :

3-bar menu (or 'Tools') => Advanced => General tab => under 'Browsing': 'Disable smooth scrolling' should be unchecked (at least that worked for some others)


Another thing to try :

Type in the address bar about:config (press Enter) (promise to be careful, if asked) Type and look for the preference : gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.force-enabled and set its value to true

However : if that doesn't make a difference, change the value back to false

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Thank you for the reply. I'm sorry I didn't mean to sound rude. I've not been able to get a screenshot but I tried to get a video which you can find here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNo2h5M0N_U

I've tried to use nvidia's shadowplay to try and capture the tearing but that seems to have made it smoother using it so I ended up using my phone to capture it.

disabling gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.force-enabled didn't have an effect BUT after disabling smooth scrolling I wasn't able to notice the tearing then I re-enabled hardware acceleration and I still don't see any tearing. The scrolling isn't satisfyingly smooth but I think that fixed.

Thank You Very Much for your help

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You're welcome  ! So glad that problem is finally solved  !

And you did absolutely not sound rude  !

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Note that you can try to increase the value of the general.smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMaxMS pref on the about:config page a higher value like 1000 to see if that makes a difference with smooth scrolling enabled.

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cor-el said

Note that you can try to increase the value of the general.smoothScroll.mouseWheel.durationMaxMS pref on the about:config page a higher value like 1000 to see if that makes a difference with smooth scrolling enabled.

I've increased the value but i still get tearing, thanks for the tip though

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mabz said

I've increased the value but i still get tearing, thanks for the tip though

So your problem is not solved after all ........ Bummer  !

In that case : would you be a dear and remove the 'Chosen Solution' mark from my post  ? You can do that by clicking on the Undo button on the right side of that post.

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If you don’t, others that can help may not read this post.

Go to that message, and use the Undo link to its right.

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No I'm happy with smooth scrolling disabled, i don't need fancy scrolling to enjoy the internet. I just wanted to try cor-el's tip and see if that would make any visible difference. You've been great happy12

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mabz said

No I'm happy with smooth scrolling disabled, i don't need fancy scrolling to enjoy the internet. I just wanted to try cor-el's tip and see if that would make any visible difference. You've been great happy12

Huge relief  !!! I honestly thought that the smooth scrolling disabled wasn't working for you after all. Phew ........

(thank you for being so sweet)