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After Firefox is minimized to the task bar and then opened up again the graphics sometimes crash - why?

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Got a brand new MSI laptop and ever since installing Firefox the look of the web page crashes some elements (look white) if the program has been minimized and then opened up again. Usually, when moving the mouse over it pops back again. But it is annoying and I'm thinking of switching to another browser instead. Latest nVidia driver.

Got a brand new MSI laptop and ever since installing Firefox the look of the web page crashes some elements (look white) if the program has been minimized and then opened up again. Usually, when moving the mouse over it pops back again. But it is annoying and I'm thinking of switching to another browser instead. Latest nVidia driver.

Isisombulu esikhethiweyo

Hi again firefoxcatcher, What version of Firefox are you now up to ?

Disabling hardware acceleration is a sort of last resort, because hardware acceleration is intended to work and help speed up some Firefox operations.

Sometimes updating the graphics drivers helps. It is also worth trying the opposite and rolling back graphics drivers.

When you say the graphics crash is Firefox hanging or freezing or is it a full blown Firefox crash with the Firefox Crash Reporter displaying?

Are these issues only on certain sties or types of content, for instance only on FlashPlayer content ?


update: firefoxcatcher said

I rolled back the graphics card driver and then updated again, which seemed to solve the problem. No issues since.
Funda le mpendulo kwimeko leyo 👍 0

All Replies (9)

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac=Options)
key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?

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So far it seems to solve it, but need more time to test. Also my impression that the browser's overall performance is faster as well.

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Try again in ordinary mode, just in case something else has changed. Also I note you were only on Fx44.0.2. By now you should be on Fx45.0.1 so ensure you have updated to that. See

Using

Menu {three bar icon) -> Help { (?) icon)  -> About Firefox

Should both check the version and trigger an update if one is available.

Using Firefox's safe mode is intended as a troubleshooting step rather than a cure. Your only extension seems to be ReminderFox. You could try disabling that to see if that makes a difference (Probably unlikely.).

You should also try with Hardware Acceleration turned off. You probably need to restart Firefox for that change to take affect. If that does help it will be well worth trying to check if you have graphics drivers updates available. See

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It is strange it hadn't updated because it was set to automatic updates. I have the latest graphics card driver and has hardware acceleration turned off. I day of testing now should determine if it is solved.

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The problem has appeared in lesser frequency since updating but hasn't fully disappeared. When it appears, also a lesser amount of the page is "broken".

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Isisombululo esiKhethiweyo

Hi again firefoxcatcher, What version of Firefox are you now up to ?

Disabling hardware acceleration is a sort of last resort, because hardware acceleration is intended to work and help speed up some Firefox operations.

Sometimes updating the graphics drivers helps. It is also worth trying the opposite and rolling back graphics drivers.

When you say the graphics crash is Firefox hanging or freezing or is it a full blown Firefox crash with the Firefox Crash Reporter displaying?

Are these issues only on certain sties or types of content, for instance only on FlashPlayer content ?


update: firefoxcatcher said

I rolled back the graphics card driver and then updated again, which seemed to solve the problem. No issues since.

Ilungisiwe ngu John99

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I'm on 45.0.1. I have tried various versions of the graphics driver so that shouldn't be the problem. What happens is not really a full-blown crash, but that certain parts of the page, like the tabs, don't show up (white blank) but reappear if I do a mouse over or minimize and maximize the browser again. Sometimes there are small black blocks on certain parts of the page or in the extra window that Reminder Fox uses. I can't notice a connection to any kind of content and/or web page.

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Presumably you only see this issue in Firefox. That's pretty unusual if it still happens in safemode (or with hardware acceleration explicitly turned off). Please do a clean reinstall of Firefox. That means deleting the Firefox program files (not the profile files) before re installing. I have added an Escalate Tag the thread, lets see if someone else has knows the solution to this.

Please post back to say whether the clean install solves this. If it does not then post again to bump the thread next week if no one else has jumped in with ideas.


Clean Install

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove your Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. This process does not remove your Firefox profile data (such as bookmarks and passwords), since that information is stored in a different location.

To do a clean reinstall of Firefox, please follow these steps: Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from mozilla.org (or choose the download for your operating system and language from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu New Fx Menu and click the close button Close 29).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.

WARNING: Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Thank you.

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I rolled back the graphics card driver and then updated again, which seemed to solve the problem. No issues since.