Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Why does firefox only show a blank screen when I start it?

  • 3 replies
  • 52 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by myzteeque

yanamel
yanamel
more options

I recently had a problem with malware and had to do a system restore. Now when I try to open Firefox, it starts as a tiny blue bar with only the close "x" on it. Clicking on the "x" expands it to a window with Mozilla Firefox across the top, minimze, maximize, and close buttons, but nothing else except a blank white screen. No tools, properties, help, address bar, nada. Can anyone help me out?

I recently had a problem with malware and had to do a system restore. Now when I try to open Firefox, it starts as a tiny blue bar with only the close "x" on it. Clicking on the "x" expands it to a window with Mozilla Firefox across the top, minimze, maximize, and close buttons, but nothing else except a blank white screen. No tools, properties, help, address bar, nada. Can anyone help me out?

All Replies (3)

ccrashh
ccrashh
more options

I noticed this recently, after installing FF 5. What I do is hit F5 to refresh the screen. That seems to reload the images including tabs, menus, etc. I have also noticed, even with FF 4, that sometimes page loads stall and I have to hit, once again, F5 to reload the page.

yanamel
yanamel Question owner
more options

Hmmm, thanks for the tip, but that doesn't seem to make a difference, the screen is still blank.

myzteeque
myzteeque
more options

I just had this problem, I also recently installed Firefox 5.0, then did a system restore and got nothing but a blank screen when I opened firefox!! What I did was downgrade to an earlier version of Firefox. I downloaded Firefox 3.6.18 here -

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Installing%20a%20previous%20version%20of%20Firefox

Sorry the link is broken up, its all supposed to be on one line but for some reason it isn't pasting correctly. If the link doesn't work just search "installing an older version of firefox" and you should be able to find one on the mozilla website. Honestly, Firefox 5.0 was terrible, I totally regret upgrading, I lost the google search bar I had in the upper left corner, and I also lost my google toolbar with that had my gmail button and (most importantly) my google bookmark button, all my bookmarks disappeared!! Everything returned back to normal when I downgraded.