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Tabs and pages not drawn when switching tabs.

  • 5 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

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When switching between tabs or opening new tabs, the tab and the page are not drawn. But if I scroll down the page is drawn.

This doesn't happen always. It happens randomly.

Here's some sample sample images:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/1.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/2.png

I've been having this problem since a few versions back.

When switching between tabs or opening new tabs, the tab and the page are not drawn. But if I scroll down the page is drawn. This doesn't happen always. It happens randomly. Here's some sample sample images: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/1.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14279386/imghost/tabrender/2.png I've been having this problem since a few versions back.

Modified by Hassaan

All Replies (5)

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You can try to disable OMTC and leave hardware acceleration in Firefox enabled.

  • about:config page: layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled = false

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.


You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

  • Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

Also make sure that you have the latest updates for your graphics display driver.

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layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled = false cuased firefox to crash at startup.

Disabling "Use hardware acceleration when available" didn't fix the problem.

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Did you try Safe Mode?

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In safe mode, there doesn't seem to be any problem. No problems even with hardware acceleration enabled or disabled.

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If it works in Safe Mode and in normal mode with all extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) disabled then try to find which extension is causing it by enabling one extension at a time until the problem reappears.

Close and restart Firefox after each change via "Firefox > Exit" (Windows: Firefox/File > Exit; Mac: Firefox > Quit Firefox; Linux: Firefox/File > Quit)


In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:

  • all extensions are disabled (about:addons)
  • default theme is used (no persona)
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored (chrome folder in profile folder)
  • default toolbar layout is used
  • JavaScript JIT compilers are disabled
  • hardware acceleration is disabled (Options > Advanced > General)
  • plugins are not affected
  • preferences are not affected