Firefox shows a black screen or blank screen after updating to 33

Revision Information
  • Revision id: 79651
  • Created:
  • Creator: AliceWyman
  • Comment: Firefox 33.0.1 released
  • Reviewed: Yes
  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: AliceWyman
  • Is approved? Yes
  • Is current revision? No
  • Ready for localization: Yes
  • Readied for localization:
  • Readied for localization by: AliceWyman
Revision Source
Revision Content
The issue described in this article applies to Windows only.

Firefox version 33 includes a new feature called Off Main Thread Compositing (OMTC) which is a faster way of loading webpages.

The Mozilla community is continually improving this feature and is working to fix a known issue: You see a black or blank screen when you start Firefox or after you visit some sites.

Mozilla has released Firefox 33.0.1 and it includes a fix for this problem. If you can use Firefox, see Update Firefox to the latest release for update instructions. If you can't use Firefox, you can download the latest Firefox version from this page using Internet Explorer or another browser, then install the new version.

Alternatively, you can follow these steps to get Firefox working:

  1. Close any Firefox windows that may be open.
  2. Press the Shift key while starting Firefox. The Firefox Safe Mode window will open.
  3. Click the Start in Safe Mode button to enter Safe Mode.
  4. If the problem does not occur in Safe Mode, turn off hardware acceleration and then start Firefox in normal mode.