All black screen on FF 13 - safe-mode also does not work
FF v13 has been working fine for several weeks on Windows 7 64bit.
Tonight everything on the screen when black. Toolbar, menu status line and canvas.
Uninstalled completely, reDW new binaries, re-launcht....same results. Wacked it again after full reboot and re-install...same thing.
Started in safe-mode....it does not render properly and does not work.
Re-installed FF v11....same thing.
Uninstalled and wacked all directory entries.....and installed FF old v3....it works fine.
All other apps on PC work fine. please don't suggest I select Tools...on the menu.... its all black. If I can guess where a clickable item is, it will respond, but working on all black screen is crazy. FF does not appear to be frozen; I remember when the the "New Window" Icon is on the all black toolbar, and it responds with a new instance when clicked. Chrome and IE work fine.
Any ideas?
Thanx in advance
All Replies (4)
First, try to reset Firefox. Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings. This simple step will eliminate many Firefox problems with only one click.
A few other basic trouble shooting things you can try is this: Run all Windows Updates, install all needed service packs, etc.
Update your graphics driver (Firefox uses your graphics card for some rendering, and an out of date graphics card driver can cause problems. Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL
Update all your plugins (Flash, Java, etc.): http://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck/.
Download and Install MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, run a full Scan. http://www.malwarebytes.org/. This helps check that there are no viruses on your computer causing issues. You can uninstall this program after you clean off any infections.
Okay, I solved my own problem.
Like many apps, FF stores profiles/settings/bookmarks and stuff in the users' Document and Settings folder. I failed to delete this stuff on full re-install, and hence the poison originally causing the problem didn't go away on re-install.
The bad new is, is that MS in their infinite wisdom does not allow users into their own folder via Windows Explorer. DL and install a free replacement called ExplorerXP and run it in Administrator mode; Then you'll have full access. There are two folders: one in your_user-id/AppData/Local/Mozilla and another one is your_user-id/Application Data/Mozilla.
Once these two folders were deleted, FF v13 starts normally without re-installing. WARNING: All of your bookmarks, settings and plug-in/extensions will be gone.
I believe this problem stemmed from a rogue web site that accessed that used full screen flash, but not will to re-try this to prove it. No other changes were made to fix this problem, so I can only believe that FF itself got damaged via internal bugs in FF or some unknown artifact of flash and other graphical software. Some internal FF guru probably could explain that a more minimal delete of certain folder content would minimize the havoc of completely re-establishing all extensions, BM's and personal customization's. Wish I could be more helpful. Cheers..
Oh crap.....FF worked fine for a hour....now back to black screen again. Not certain...but I don't think I ran flash. Did go to Google news though.
Same exact problem. If it is a graphics card driver issue....why does flash work under Chrome and IE?
Time to move onto another (better) browser. Hope FF can get this problem fixed by version 29.
Modified by bcwilmot
Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?
You can try to boot the computer in Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) to check if that makes it work.