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Firefox occasionally displays a black screen until minimized/maximized.

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Firefox has been turning my pages black. It's not exactly a crash; all it takes to fix it is to minimize and re-maximize the browser. However it is incredibly annoying to have to continually do that while working. Screenshot image is added below.

This has been occurring ever since I upgraded to Windows 10. It only seems to occur on certain sites: namely facebook and SAS on demand (yay for the screen going black in the middle of coding!). Turning off hardware acceleration did not fix it, and I can reliably reproduce it by typing code into SAS on demand (or mousing around) or browsing Facebook. Any ideas? Thanks!

Firefox has been turning my pages black. It's not exactly a crash; all it takes to fix it is to minimize and re-maximize the browser. However it is incredibly annoying to have to continually do that while working. Screenshot image is added below. This has been occurring ever since I upgraded to Windows 10. It only seems to occur on certain sites: namely facebook and SAS on demand (yay for the screen going black in the middle of coding!). Turning off hardware acceleration did not fix it, and I can reliably reproduce it by typing code into SAS on demand (or mousing around) or browsing Facebook. Any ideas? Thanks!

Chosen solution

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

  • Click the menu button New Fx Menu, click Help Help-29 and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

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)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

SafeMode-Fx35

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in 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.

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Chosen Solution

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

  • Click the menu button New Fx Menu, click Help Help-29 and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

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)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

SafeMode-Fx35

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in 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.