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Firefox 39 crashes on online videos, video blacks out and then crashes the browser.

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  • 5 have this problem
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  • Last reply by thewitcher2

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This only happens with videos. When I watch a video after some minutes the video area gets black. When I scroll up or down, it kind of corrupts the whole webpage. If I change taps, they get completely black, and then I can't do anything. This began to happen about two months ago. I have re installed Firefox 39 and 38, but the problems persists. I even reinstalled Windows 7, because I thought it was a Virus, but it was to no avail. I really like using Firefox, so I hope this problem has a solution.

This only happens with videos. When I watch a video after some minutes the video area gets black. When I scroll up or down, it kind of corrupts the whole webpage. If I change taps, they get completely black, and then I can't do anything. This began to happen about two months ago. I have re installed Firefox 39 and 38, but the problems persists. I even reinstalled Windows 7, because I thought it was a Virus, but it was to no avail. I really like using Firefox, so I hope this problem has a solution.

Chosen solution

Odd graphical artifacts can indicate some incompatibility between Firefox and your graphics card/chipset driver software. To work around that, could you try disabling Firefox from using hardware acceleration:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

This takes effect the next time you exit Firefox and start it up again. Any difference?

If the player uses Flash, the Flash plugin has a similar option: right-click the media and choose Settings, then the first mini-tab and uncheck the box to use hardware acceleration. More information in this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

Any improvement?


Since hardware acceleration improves the appearance of fonts and animations, you may want to check to see whether any graphics card/chipset driver updates are available for your system. This support article suggest safe places to do that: Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL.

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Chosen Solution

Odd graphical artifacts can indicate some incompatibility between Firefox and your graphics card/chipset driver software. To work around that, could you try disabling Firefox from using hardware acceleration:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

This takes effect the next time you exit Firefox and start it up again. Any difference?

If the player uses Flash, the Flash plugin has a similar option: right-click the media and choose Settings, then the first mini-tab and uncheck the box to use hardware acceleration. More information in this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

Any improvement?


Since hardware acceleration improves the appearance of fonts and animations, you may want to check to see whether any graphics card/chipset driver updates are available for your system. This support article suggest safe places to do that: Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL.

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Hi, jscher2000.

Your recommendation worked perfectly. At first I was skeptical, because I understand little of this technical issues, but it solved my problem. Many thanks to you, Sir.