Why am I Having Graphics Problems with the Latest Version 29.0.1 of Firefox?
It seems like after I installed version 29.0.1 of Firefox, I'm having intermittent graphics problems I've never had before with any previous version and I don't have with any of my other browsers.
Sometimes Firefox just scrambles the web pages on all of the tabs I have open. No other components of the Windows XP desktop have graphics problems when this happens and no other open applications seem to have graphics problems. It's just Firefox. Sometimes I can refresh the tab/page (F5) and it clears up the blotchy random graphics characters.
Does anyone know if there were changes to the graphics engine in version 29.0.1?
Thanks!
All Replies (10)
Can you attach a screenshot?
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem
Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot.
Try to create a new Boolean pref on the about:config page via the right-click context menu with the name layout.paint_rects_separately and set the value to true and leave hardware acceleration enabled.
See comment 414 in bug 812695:
That way you still have the benefit from hardware acceleration, but may not suffer from rendering issues.
- Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration
Modified by cor-el
Of course, now that I want it to have graphics problems to do a screen capture, it hasn't for almost 24 hours. :) I'll attach a capture as soon as it happens again. In the mean time I may try the above suggestion. Thanks.
It finally happened again. It looks like it's not refreshing properly. If I scroll or click around with the mouse, sections of the web page start to redraw.
Did you disable hardware acceleration in Firefox?
I haven't done anything yet because I wanted to reproduce the problem. Now I'll try the first suggestion, which seems to be to add a new preference and leave hardware acceleration on.
Unfortunately, added a boolean preference layout.paint_rects_separately didn't correct the problem. I guess my next step is to figure out how to turn off hardware acceleration when browsing. I suppose the other alternative is to revert back to the previous version of the browser. :(
You can disable hardware acceleration in Firefox:
- Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: [] "Use hardware acceleration when available"
You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.
I've disabled hardware acceleration to see if that works.
Even if it does though, why would I want to disable this feature because it isn't working in version 29.0.1 rather than just uninstall Firefox and reinstall the previous version where acceleration appears to have been working?
Hi Steve, unless you use a lot of 3D, I think the performance improvement with hardware acceleration is small. You need to balance that against the security implications: Mozilla discloses security flaws after each new release.
No, I don't view a lot of 3D in browsers but it always annoys me when I LOSE functionality going to a new version of Firefox. :)