black background on some elements in FF 33b7

[-ck-]

This did not happen in 33b6, I just rolled back to it and it goes away.

Some elements, cannot quite figure out the pattern, mysteriously get a black background instead of transparency.

Happens occasionally on the text in textareas, sometimes on divs layered over other elements.

Strangely not always on the same elements!

Is this maybe a gpu acceleration issue? I am using XP on an old video card so I suspect any acceleration is emulated.

Or maybe it is just an XP issue.

Anyone else experience it?

[firefoxusers]

I've got the same issue after I updated FF (I'm on the beta channel). Using Windows XP SP3

[-ck-]

I've got the same issue after I updated FF (I'm on the beta channel). Using Windows XP SP3

Thanks for the confirm that I am not crazy

I am sticking with 33b6 until I see the 33b8 candidate.

[patrickjdempsey]

Does it happen in SafeMode? If not it's probably hardware acceleration. That is the usual source of the black squares.

[cheesypoof]

I can reproduce this on Windows 8.1, only with hardware acceleration enabled. Visit https://news.yahoo.com/u-military-concerned-russian-cold-war-style-bomber-192813284.html and scroll down the page.

[streetwolf]

I can reproduce this on Windows 8.1, only with hardware acceleration enabled. Visit https://news.yahoo.com/u-military-concerned-russian-cold-war-style-bomber-192813284.html and scroll down the page.

No problems for me. What video card are you using? Video drivers can also cause these sort of problems.

[cheesypoof]

I should have mentioned that - AMD Radeon HD 7850 on v14.10.1006 drivers (Catalyst 14.4).

[streetwolf]

There have been problems with AMD card and drivers for about a year or so. I had my share. For the most part they all have disappeared. Whether it was the drivers, Fx patches or a combination of both I don't know.

[psaulm119]

I can reproduce this on Windows 8.1, only with hardware acceleration enabled. Visit https://news.yahoo.com/u-military-concerned-russian-cold-war-style-bomber-192813284.html and scroll down the page.

I don't get the black squares on that page, regardless of whether hwa is enabled or not, on 33b7. Running Win7.

EDIT: Inserted graphics section from about:support below:

Graphics
Adapter Description AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6520G
Adapter Drivers aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
Adapter RAM 512
Device ID 0x9647
Direct2D Enabled true
DirectWrite Enabled true (6.2.9200.16571)
Driver Date 11-10-2011
Driver Version 8.911.6.0
GPU #2 Active false
GPU Accelerated Windows 1/1 Direct3D 10
Vendor ID 0x1002
WebGL Renderer Google Inc. -- ANGLE (AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6520G Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)
windowLayerManagerRemote false
AzureCanvasBackend direct2d
AzureContentBackend direct2d
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated 0

[firefoxusers]

Here is some examples of black squares:

http://mostly.tk/FF3.jpg
http://mostly.tk/FF4.jpg
http://mostly.tk/FF6.jpg

This is the tab bar, if I scroll it, it gets black:
http://mostly.tk/FF5.jpg

[firefoxusers]

Does it happen in SafeMode?

In SafeMode it works fine - no black squares at all.

[Gingerbread Man]

If you're going to post whether or not you have this problem, please mention which graphics drivers you have. If you don't know, type about:support into the address bar, press Enter, then copy the Graphics section to the clipboard.

Check for updates to your graphics driver.
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

If there's no update or that doesn't help, post a reply to say so. Then try the following.

1. Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter.
2. To bypass the warning, press the big button labeled I'll be careful, I promise!.
3. In the lower pane, right-click and choose New, then Boolean.
4. As the preference name, enter layout.paint_rects_separately and as the value choose true.
5. Restart Firefox.

If the above doesn't help, disable hardware acceleration.

1. Click the ≡ Menu Button and choose Options.
2. Click the Advanced icon.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
5. Restart Firefox.

black boxes all over certain sites the last few days | Mozilla Support

[firefoxusers]

I downloaded amddriverdownloader.exe from http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/auto-detect-tool
It says "You got the latest version of the video driver"

Code: Select all

Graphics
Adapter Description         AMD 760G
Adapter Drivers            ati2dvag
Adapter RAM            Unknown
Device ID               0x9616
DirectWrite Enabled         false (0.0.0.0)
Driver Date            2-10-2010
Driver Version            8.710.0.0
GPU #2 Active            false
GPU Accelerated Windows      1/1 Direct3D 9
Vendor ID               0x1002
WebGL Renderer         Google Inc. -- ANGLE (AMD 760G Direct3D9 vs_3_0 ps_3_0)
windowLayerManagerRemote   false
AzureCanvasBackend         skia
AzureContentBackend         cairo
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend   cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated         0

... Then try the following.

It doesn't work.

If the above doesn't help, disable hardware acceleration.

It works!

[cheesypoof]

I installed the latest beta drivers (14.7rc3); they don't produce the black boxes.

The driver I was using previously (14.4) is still the latest stable release (5-months old), so this is not a case of the drivers being ancient. I do think this is a genuine regression. Anybody know if there has been an actual bug report for this yet? I couldn't find anything recent.

[Gingerbread Man]

Does this make a difference? Set layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled to false in about:config, then restart Firefox.
That may already be its default value. I don't know when it was switched to true and I don't have beta installed to test.

Anybody know if there has been an actual bug report for this yet?

It may be this issue, or something related:
Bug 837489 - display corruption (black or white squares)… with AMD Catalyst…

You could post a comment there asking if a new report should be filed. Be sure to include the about:support graphics info. Also mention any other relevant information, like the fact that it started in 33.0b7 and doesn't occur with the 14.7rc3 drivers.