This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Cuireadh an snáithe seo sa chartlann. Cuir ceist nua má tá cabhair uait.

I am getting strange numeric symbols or tiles instead of text when using Firefox. Repeated reloads and virus scans have not fixed it. I can't find a patch. Help! I hate IE!

  • 1 freagra
  • 2 leis an bhfadhb seo
  • 3 views
  • Freagra is déanaí ó cor-el

more options

Each time I open Firefox, I get blocks or tiles of numbers for each character instead of text. The tiles appear as composites of four digits, stacked two by two. At some websites, normal text does appear in boxes but mostly as this numeric gibberish. The functionality of the Firefox software does not seem to have been affected. But if I can't read it, I can't use it.

Each time I open Firefox, I get blocks or tiles of numbers for each character instead of text. The tiles appear as composites of four digits, stacked two by two. At some websites, normal text does appear in boxes but mostly as this numeric gibberish. The functionality of the Firefox software does not seem to have been affected. But if I can't read it, I can't use it.

All Replies (1)

more options

Try to set the pref gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.use_gdi_table_loading to false on the about:config page.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

  • Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
  • Preferences that have been modified show as bold(user set).
  • Preferences can be reset to the default or changed via the right-click context menu.