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Firefox display freeze

taufik.akbar7
taufik.akbar7

I have firefox 35 on a windows 8.1 64 bit. Firefox frequently do this strange behavior. The page and GUI will just hang/freeze but when i scroll the mouse, the cursor changes as if the page is still active and scrollable. Also, when I hover at tabs they will give the "tab title" tooltip. But clicking on anything on firefox won't give any graphical feedback. The only thing i can do is close firefox then reopen and restore session which is pretty annoying when I'm in a middle of a work. Dragging out the tab i am working on to make new window also "fix" the problem with the freezing window, but often it ended with a crash several minutes later.

Minimizing + maximizing again resulted in blank white window which still "hoverable" (give tooltip, change cursor type). I have tried disabling flash but it also happens on page without flash, disabling adblocks, still happened even in my localhost pages. Please help, I don't want to use memory hungry chrome.

I have firefox 35 on a windows 8.1 64 bit. Firefox frequently do this strange behavior. The page and GUI will just hang/freeze but when i scroll the mouse, the cursor changes as if the page is still active and scrollable. Also, when I hover at tabs they will give the "tab title" tooltip. But clicking on anything on firefox won't give any graphical feedback. The only thing i can do is close firefox then reopen and restore session which is pretty annoying when I'm in a middle of a work. Dragging out the tab i am working on to make new window also "fix" the problem with the freezing window, but often it ended with a crash several minutes later. Minimizing + maximizing again resulted in blank white window which still "hoverable" (give tooltip, change cursor type). I have tried disabling flash but it also happens on page without flash, disabling adblocks, still happened even in my localhost pages. Please help, I don't want to use memory hungry chrome.

Chosen solution

Hello,

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

  1. Open Firefox Options window (Preferences on Mac or Linux) as follows:
    • In Firefox 29.0 and above, click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options for Windows or Preferences on Mac or Linux.
    • In Firefox 28.0 and previous versions, click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
  2. In the Firefox Options (or Preferences) window, click the Advanced tab, then select General.
  3. In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
  4. Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (2)

guigs
guigs

Chosen Solution

Hello,

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

  1. Open Firefox Options window (Preferences on Mac or Linux) as follows:
    • In Firefox 29.0 and above, click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options for Windows or Preferences on Mac or Linux.
    • In Firefox 28.0 and previous versions, click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
  2. In the Firefox Options (or Preferences) window, click the Advanced tab, then select General.
  3. In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
  4. Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

taufik.akbar7
taufik.akbar7 Question owner

Hi Guigs,

Thanks for the reply. I tried it and no crash/freeze up to now so i will mark your reply as solution. I may inform you somewhat in the future if this really fix my problem or not because the nature of the bug that it occurs at very random time.

Regards.