Popup windows flash open then closed while watching videos or visitng websites.
It seems to happen more often when I am watching a video on Youtube or Hulu. The video is playing normally and all of a sudden what looks like a pop up window opens and immediately closes. Sometimes you can see what looks like a person or an ad, but only for a fraction of a second and then it's gone. This will happen over and over again and it's super irritating. The windows seem to be of all sizes, they pop up in different parts of the screen and the frequency changes so that sometimes this happens a lot and other times there are fewer.
I've scanned for viruses with several programs, Avast and Trendmicro HouseCall. OS is Windows 7 Firefox and Flashplayer are all up to date. I've also scanned for Malware and Spyware.
I have even turned off Firefox's popup blocker so I might see where these windows are coming from, but no popup ads ever open it just keeps flashing these windows open and immediatly closed.
All Replies (4)
Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that turns off some settings and disables most add-ons (extensions and themes).
(If you're using an added theme, switch to the Default theme.)
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu by clicking on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item:
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
- On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.
To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.
Please report back soon.
Some problems with Flash video playback can be resolved by disabling hardware acceleration in your Flash Player settings. (See this article for more information on using the Flash plugin in Firefox).
To disable hardware acceleration in Flash Player:
- Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
- Right-click on the Flash Player logo on that page.
- Click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
- Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
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- Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.
- Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
- Restart Firefox.
This Flash Player Help - Display Settings page has more information on Flash Player hardware acceleration, if you're interested.
Does this solve the problem? Let us know.
Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.
You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).
Then perform these steps:
- Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
- In the Firefox options window click the Advanced tab, then select "General".
- In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
- Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.
Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:
Did this fix your problems? Please report back soon.
By default, Firefox blocks popups generated by plugins, such as the Flash plugin, making exceptions for the same sites you allow to display regular popups. Could you check to make sure that hasn't been turned off?
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste popup and pause while the list is filtered
(3) If the privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins preference has been modified from its default value of 2 to anything lower, right-click > Reset it back to 2. To forbid popups from plugins on ALL sites, you can double-click the preference and change it to 3.
Any difference?