Can you recall what you had a new tab before? By default, a new Firefox tab in earlier versions would have been completely blank. However, some add-ons were designed to add content to a blank new tab. It's possible that there is a conflict between an add-on and Firefox's new tab feature.

When you create a new tab, right-click the page, and choose View Page Info, what is the address listed in the dialog?

If it's not about:newtab, could you try typing or pasting about:newtab in the url bar. Do you get the expected page thumbnails?

You can check the value of the browser.newtab.url pref on the about:config page.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Resetting_preferences

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

• Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

I have found a solution that solves my problem. I went into about:config, browser.newtab.url and changed the about:newtab to about:blank. I am very happy that I can add new tabs without errors and the blank page works for me.

Thanks for the suggestions.