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Why does the firefox rendering engine go berzerk and display garbage?

  • 8 replies
  • 7 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by Vivek

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As I scroll or as I go to a new page, most any time, the display within the Firefox window becomes mis-displayed. That is pehaps as diagonally across the window or perhaps a sub display field will be displayed distorted diagonally. I could send a screen shot. This happened a little when using Thunderbird, which I understand has the same rendering engine but not lately. If I close Firefox and restart it, it might behave for a while. It quickly starts problems again. Right now, as I type this, this sub window for entering text is blinking on and off and it has now started going diagonal in its display. At the same time, I can continue to enter text. Is there a way to send you screen shots? As I type this and went on down the page, trying to copy and past the trouble shooting information requested below, I had a great deal of trouble with the screen flipping around. Finally I noticed the link to copy it all to the clipboard to paste below. I cannot tell you if it made it because I cannot get the window below to display properly.

As I scroll or as I go to a new page, most any time, the display within the Firefox window becomes mis-displayed. That is pehaps as diagonally across the window or perhaps a sub display field will be displayed distorted diagonally. I could send a screen shot. This happened a little when using Thunderbird, which I understand has the same rendering engine but not lately. If I close Firefox and restart it, it might behave for a while. It quickly starts problems again. Right now, as I type this, this sub window for entering text is blinking on and off and it has now started going diagonal in its display. At the same time, I can continue to enter text. Is there a way to send you screen shots? As I type this and went on down the page, trying to copy and past the trouble shooting information requested below, I had a great deal of trouble with the screen flipping around. Finally I noticed the link to copy it all to the clipboard to paste below. I cannot tell you if it made it because I cannot get the window below to display properly.

Chosen solution

Instead of starting in Safe Mode you can try disabling Use hardware acceleration when possible in Tools (Alt + T) > Options > Advanced > General and restart Firefox normally.

You can also take a screenshot using the PrtSc / SysRq key on the keyboard. This takes a shot of the whole desktop, copies it to memory/clipboard and you can paste it into any graphics program, save it and upload it. To take a shot of just the active window press Alt and the above key together.

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All Replies (8)

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Hi,

Please check if this happens in Safe Mode. You can also attach a screenshot on this page below Post a Reply > Add images: Browse ...

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I have previously turned off all extensions and add ons. I have no theme on other than the original standard.

I tried to crate some screen shots but every time I start to use the snipping tool, it re renders the screen in translucent mode and the errors go away. I will have to go to a lot of trouble to get into safe mode, but I will shortly.

The easiest way to solve the problem is of course to start using another browser. I like Firefox however and do not consider IE to be very safe.

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Chosen Solution

Instead of starting in Safe Mode you can try disabling Use hardware acceleration when possible in Tools (Alt + T) > Options > Advanced > General and restart Firefox normally.

You can also take a screenshot using the PrtSc / SysRq key on the keyboard. This takes a shot of the whole desktop, copies it to memory/clipboard and you can paste it into any graphics program, save it and upload it. To take a shot of just the active window press Alt and the above key together.

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Turning off hardware acceleration seems like it has fixed the problem. Only more time will tell for sure. It is still on for windows itself. I do not think it is a problem with my video card. will click the solved it button as soon as I am sure.

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Updating the graphics drivers may help. Usually the updates once made available after fixing bugs, errors etc. would be listed in the Windows Control Panel > Windows Update > Optional updates section. Otherwise you may have to find it manually from the manufacturer's website. You needn't do this, unless absolutely necessary.

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I have the latest graphics card drivers. That it might be a graphics card problem was my first thought. I ruled that out when I realized that it really only just happened with Thunderbird and especially Firefox. Also it would hold off for a while on restarting Firefox. Why Firefox cannot use the graphics drivers for hardware acceleration properly is still an open question. My life is now much easier as I am not fighting the browser constantly.

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Thank you for the feedback. This isn't necessary but I think it would be helpful to the Firefox developers if you could file a small bug report @ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/