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!

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

Firefox 21 whole window goes black after being opened for a few seconds

  • 6 replies
  • 21 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by Andrew

more options

After most recent update (21 I think), Firefox window goes all black - no buttons, anything, a few seconds after opening. Sometimes it'll last a few minutes before going black. Start menu remains so I can minimize it, close it, etc. Audio if playing on the page will continue to play after blackout. Tried all basic tricks including uninstall/reinstall.

Windows 7 64bit ATI Radeon 5XXX 4gb ram. Other browsers work fine. All else seems to be fine with Firefox before it goes black.

After most recent update (21 I think), Firefox window goes all black - no buttons, anything, a few seconds after opening. Sometimes it'll last a few minutes before going black. Start menu remains so I can minimize it, close it, etc. Audio if playing on the page will continue to play after blackout. Tried all basic tricks including uninstall/reinstall. Windows 7 64bit ATI Radeon 5XXX 4gb ram. Other browsers work fine. All else seems to be fine with Firefox before it goes black.

All Replies (6)

more options

Hello,

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

  • You can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

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 for that.

To exit the 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 other users who have the same problem.

Thank you.

more options

Was just in Safe Mode for a while. Didn't Happen. I'll start coasting through the add ons I guess and let you know.

more options

Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

more options

Well a week in safe mode and it doesn't crash, but starting up in regular mode and seemingly disabling all extensions it still crashes, are there other places to disable stuff?

more options

Trying the no hardware acceleration too...

more options

We're sorry to hear that your Firefox seems to be crashing when you open it. Please perform the following steps to give us a crash report ID that helps us find out more about the cause of the crash.

  1. Press the following shortcut to get a Run window: [Windows] + [R]. This should bring up a window that contains a text field.
  2. In that text field, enter %APPDATA% and press Enter. An explorer window should open.
  3. From that explorer window, double-click on the Mozilla folder, then double-click on Firefox and then on Crash reports. Double-click on submitted.
  4. Now, you should see a list of files that contain reports. Go to View > Arrange Icons by > Modified to get the most recent files at the top of the window.
  5. Open the most recent 5 files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
  6. Paste each ID with bp- into the reply window on the forums.

Thanks in advance!

You can find more information and troubleshooting steps in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.