1091580 - NIghtly causing ATI driver to crash on The Guardian with embedded video.

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: Graphics, defect)

Description

[Mike Aguilar]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0
Build ID: 20141029030207

Steps to reproduce:

Opened pages on The Guardian containing embedded video.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/oct/29/gerrymander-florida-redistricting-gary-younge-video

http://www.theguardian.com/music/video/2014/oct/29/kiesza-capoeira-video-off-record




Actual results:

1st occurrence: Nightly 36 0a1 crashed. Windows popped up a message saying the ATI Graphics Driver had recovered from a crash. (The capoeira story)
2nd occurrence: Nightly 36 0a1 crashed. Windows popped up a message saying the ATI Graphics Driver had recovered from a crash. (The gerrymandering story)
3rd occurrence: Tried opening the same page with less tabs open. Windows crashed→BLUE screen. (Gerrymandering)


Expected results:

Video window should have opened so video could be played. 

I have opened both of the above links with IE and had no problem. After reboot of system following Blue screen and watching the videos in IE, I was able to open the first page to get the link. I didn't try watching the video, but the first problem occurred shortly after I opened the links in new tabs.

Comment 1

[Paul Silaghi, QA [:pauly]]

Everything's fine to me on 36.0a1 (2014-10-29), Win 7 x64, AMD FX(tm)-8320 Eight-Core Processor 3.50Ghz, AMD Radeon R7 200 Series.

Please check if the issue occurs using Firefox in safe mode (with your addons disabled):
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode

And on a new, empty profile:
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Managing-profiles#w_starting-the-profile-manager

Comment 2

[Mike Aguilar]

I've got a Toshiba Satellite laptop that originally had an Intel processor, but that died and a new board was installed with an AMD Turion II Dual-core Mobile M500 @ 2.2 Ghz. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with 4 GB of memory. Graphics is through an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200.

Like I said, don't think the problem has been found if I don't report back today or tomorrow. It might not happen again for a week. Or more.

Comment 3

[Mike Aguilar]

I've restarted in safe mode. I'll keep it open all day and see if it happens again. I'll also try and remember to start in safe mode for awhile to see if it happens. Hopefully, if it's going to happen, it does so today.

Comment 4

[Loic]

Mike, could you test with OMTC disabled (about:config > layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled=false) and HWA enabled too.

Comment 5

[Loic]

(in addition, paste the "graphics" section from about:support, please)

Comment 6

[Mike Aguilar]

Attachment: Graphics section of about:support

Here is a screenshot of the Graphics section from about:support.

Comment 7

[Mike Aguilar]

Attachment: Screenshot of mist recent updates.

Here is a screenshot of the most recent updates.

Comment 8

[Mike Aguilar]

Should this testing with OMTC disabled be done at the same time as operating in safe mode? If I disable OMTC and remain in safe mode, wouldn't that skew the results of the test? Shouldn't we only be testing for one thing at a time?

Comment 9

[Loic]

Test in normal mode, no need to test in safe mode. Anyway disabling/enabling OMTC and/or HWA needs to restart the browser.

Comment 10

[Mike Aguilar]

I just disabled it and wasn't asked to restart the browser. What and where is HWA?

Comment 11

[Mike Aguilar]

I don't know what turning OMTC off did, but it broke my audio driver. Youtube videos have crackly sound, when they have sound. Even Winamp starts crackling and breaking up as I scroll through a long page. OMTC is back on.

Comment 12

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

hwa is (graphic) hardware acceleration and you can disable it under :
Firefox:options/advanced/general/[]Use hardware acceleration...  
A Firefox restart could be required if you change that option !

Your graphic card driver is pretty old (2009 !) and an updated driver could contain a fix for this driver bug.
Question: Did you make this screenshot while running in the Firefox safemode ?

Comment 13

[Mike Aguilar]

I honestly don't remember. I think so. That driver was downloaded from the ATI site a month ago. Via Windows Update.

Why do I keep being told that selecting options will require a restart of Nightly and when I select the option, I'm not asked or told to restart?

Comment 14

[Mike Aguilar]

HWA has been disabled.

Comment 15

[Nicolas Silva [:nical]]

(In reply to Mike Aguilar from comment #13)
> Why do I keep being told that selecting options will require a restart of
> Nightly and when I select the option, I'm not asked or told to restart?

The changes related to hardware acceleration and OMTC only take effect once you restart, that's it. There is no UI asking users to restart when they touch these options.

Comment 16

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Mike,
Does this still reproduce when using a current version? TIA

Comment 17

[Phoenix]

Resolved per whiteboard