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Glitchy/distorted text occasionally displays on websites

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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Recently (~2 days ago) I would be scrolling down a website and the text would glitch out into black/white/colorful squares. Now it happens randomly and I don't know what causes it. The glitch would follow as I scroll, and I could refresh the page or highlight portions of the text to get rid of the distortion. I have tried quitting out of Firefox, booting it in safe mode, and uninstall-reinstalling it. None of that has helped. Attached are screenshots of the glitch. It seems to be getting more frequent (?)

I did some system scans/diagnostics to check that it wasn't a hardware issue, and there's no problem on microsoft edge or other applications like discord/steam, so it seems to be a Firefox issue.

Recently (~2 days ago) I would be scrolling down a website and the text would glitch out into black/white/colorful squares. Now it happens randomly and I don't know what causes it. The glitch would follow as I scroll, and I could refresh the page or highlight portions of the text to get rid of the distortion. I have tried quitting out of Firefox, booting it in safe mode, and uninstall-reinstalling it. None of that has helped. Attached are screenshots of the glitch. It seems to be getting more frequent (?) I did some system scans/diagnostics to check that it wasn't a hardware issue, and there's no problem on microsoft edge or other applications like discord/steam, so it seems to be a Firefox issue.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Is this with all websites/pages, some, a few?


Many site issues can be caused by corrupt cookies or cache.

Warning ! ! This will log you out of sites you're logged in to. You may also lose any settings for that website.

If there is still a problem, Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Did this help?

While you are in safe mode;

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.

How to disable Hardware Acceleration {web link}

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Chosen Solution

Is this with all websites/pages, some, a few?


Many site issues can be caused by corrupt cookies or cache.

Warning ! ! This will log you out of sites you're logged in to. You may also lose any settings for that website.

If there is still a problem, Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Did this help?

While you are in safe mode;

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.

How to disable Hardware Acceleration {web link}