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

Tabs and pages not drawn when switching tabs.

  • 5 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Paskiausią atsakymą parašė cor-el

more options

When switching between tabs or opening new tabs, the tab and the page are not drawn. But if I scroll down the page is drawn.

This doesn't happen always. It happens randomly.

Here's some sample sample images:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/1.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/2.png

I've been having this problem since a few versions back.

When switching between tabs or opening new tabs, the tab and the page are not drawn. But if I scroll down the page is drawn. This doesn't happen always. It happens randomly. Here's some sample sample images: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/1.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/2.png I've been having this problem since a few versions back.

Modified by Hassaan

All Replies (5)

more options

You can try to disable OMTC and leave hardware acceleration in Firefox enabled.

  • about:config page: layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled = false

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.


You can try to 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.

Also make sure that you have the latest updates for your graphics display driver.

more options

layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled = false cuased firefox to crash at startup.

Disabling "Use hardware acceleration when available" didn't fix the problem.

more options

Did you try Safe Mode?

more options

In safe mode, there doesn't seem to be any problem. No problems even with hardware acceleration enabled or disabled.

more options

If it works in Safe Mode and in normal mode with all extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) disabled then try to find which extension is causing it by enabling one extension at a time until the problem reappears.

Close and restart Firefox after each change via "Firefox > Exit" (Windows: Firefox/File > Exit; Mac: Firefox > Quit Firefox; Linux: Firefox/File > Quit)


In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:

  • all extensions are disabled (about:addons)
  • default theme is used (no persona)
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored (chrome folder in profile folder)
  • default toolbar layout is used
  • JavaScript JIT compilers are disabled
  • hardware acceleration is disabled (Options > Advanced > General)
  • plugins are not affected
  • preferences are not affected