Display driver failure only with Firefox

[RSinger]

Having recently reinstalled the OS (Win 7 home premium) on a Dell desktop circa 2010, when I open videos from certain sites (not Youtube videos) using Firefox, I get the following error message and the dreaded blue screen: Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed. I have to reboot to recover. I do not get the blue screen at any other time, but only with certain videos.

However, I do not get this failure message when I open the same video from the same site using Chrome, and I do not get the blue screen.

I updated the video driver from the Dell site with no luck. I then added a value in regedit from a Microsoft site regarding this problem: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers. The added value was in QWORD(64).

Still no luck.

I would hate to switch to Chrome after so many years using Firefox.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much.

RSinger

[Reflective]

Change it to a DWORD. QWORDs can only be used to store numerical data while DWORDs can be used to store string values, binary values and numerical data.

You mentioned that you get the following error message, but didn't mention what it said (?).

[therube]

https://www.google.com/search?q=Attempt ... unofficial

Tends to point to video driver issue.

Go to Dell's website & verify that you're using the most recent video (& other for that matter) drivers for your laptop.
(I think if you plug your "tag" in, it should show you all the drivers you need.)

Otherwise you might do the same search but adjust slightly for a "Dell" preference.

[RSinger]

Two replies here: for Reflective and for therube.

Reply for Reflective:

Thanks very much. The message was included in the original post: "Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed." That message was included in the blue screen at the top, and in the lower right portion of the screen at the icon tray.

The DWORD option if for a 32 bit OS, whereas the QWORD is for 64 bit. Nevertheless I tried putting the value '8' in as suggested in the Microsoft support site (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... dows-vista).

After rebooting, the computer still went to blue screen with certain videos.


Reply for therube:

Thank you very much.

I have already done that. On the Dell site I got the part number and maker of the video driver, and then downloaded and installed the most recent driver for it. That did not solve the problem.

I had already installed an updated display driver. Do you recommend deleting the updated driver and reinstalling it?

Thanks very much.

[morat]

Memtest86+ is a software tool aimed at memory failure detection.

http://www.memtest.org/
http://www.memtest86.com/

[RSinger]

Morat:

I ran memtest86 and it reported no errors.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[mightyglydd]

Have you tried disabling Firefox Hardware Acceleration?
Options > Advanced > General > Under 'Browsing' , if it's checked uncheck and restart Firefox.

[RSinger]

I tried it right now but it didn't help. Still crashed to the blue screen from a video. But it doesn't crash with Chrome.

What concerns me is that we just don't know if we should replace the video card, the hard drive, or both. I hate to take it (a desktop) to a place like Best Buy and pay the $150 for an analysis, plus any replacement parts.

[therube]

So how about links to this particular videos that cause the issue?

Maybe its a more general FF bug?
And in that respect, other then blue-screens, are you getting any crashes recorded in about:crashes, & if so, the related URLs?

[elist74]

Have you tried disabling Firefox Hardware Acceleration?
Options > Advanced > General > Under 'Browsing' , if it's checked uncheck and restart Firefox.

also Flashplayer is having "Hardware Acceleration"

[RSinger]

Sorry for the delay in replying.

The site with the videos that cause the blue screen is http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/.

The about:crashes screen does not show any crashes.

Unchecking the FF hardware acceleration seems to have no effect. Crashes occur anyway.

[JayhawksRock]

On your link I get a Flash out of date warning and the site then stops any further access to the site....

[dfoulkes]

Just visited that link... all ran OK... and I did see that my Flash was outdated yesterday so I updated it...
I just reread this topic... I did not see where the basics for testing a profile was not done???

I would suggest that you restart Firefox into safe-mode and see what happens...

Try running Firefox in safe-mode... NOTE: This is a testing procedure only ... NOT for normal browsing.
-- On the menu bar, click the Help menu and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled....
Firefox will start up with the Firefox Safe Mode dialog. Click continue in Safe Mode and don't check any items.

Note: You can also start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the shift key while Single/Double clicking on the icon.
* (option key while starting Firefox on Mac).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>What safe-mode does ..... Safe Mode temporarily affects the following:
* All extensions are disabled. --- * The userChrome.css and userContent.css files are ignored.
* The default theme is used, without a persona. --- * The default toolbar layout is used.
* The Just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compiler is disabled. --- * Hardware acceleration is disabled.

-- Safe Mode has no effect on the following --
* The status of plugins is not affected.
* Custom preferences are not affected.

This is the link to the main KB article for Safe-Mode ... but, use the above info 1st...
Safe Mode - MozillaZine Knowledge Base

... also, create a test profile and use it as-is for testing...
Creating a new Firefox profile on Windows - MozillaZine Knowledge Base
And,.... DON'T TOUCH THAT "Choose Folder..." BUTTON! ... unless you fully know all about it.

...and... what happens if your bring down the portable version of Firefox?
Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives