1148774 - Text Rendering Issues on Windows 7 with Platform Update KB2670838

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Core :: Graphics: Text, defect)

Description

[Patrick Storz]

Seems that bug 812695 is showing up again sporadically. (See bug 812695 comment 508 and following)

It should be investigated if something was changed that may have caused a regression. Reports seem to indicate it started somewhere in Firefox 36.* branch.

Comment 1

[Patrick Storz]

Personally I saw this issue recently in GitHub's Markdown editor. Not nearly as bad as before, not reliably reproducible and I also didn't see it anywhere else yet, but should definitely be investigated.

I'm not sure when it started again, but I think it was during the 36 release cycle, possibly 36.0.3/36.0.4 (might have been earlier though and I just didn't notice).


ClearType-Parameter: D [ Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: R ClearType Level: 100 Enhanced Contrast: 200 ] D [ Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: R ClearType Level: 100 Enhanced Contrast: 50 ]
Direct2D aktiviert: true
DirectWrite aktiviert: true (6.2.9200.16571)
Geräte-ID: 0x95c4
Geräte-ID (GPU #2): 0x2a42
GPU #2 aktiv: false
GPU-beschleunigte Fenster: 1/1 Direct3D 11 (OMTC)
Karten-Beschreibung: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series
Karten-Beschreibung (GPU #2): Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
Karten-RAM: 256
Karten-RAM (GPU #2): Unknown
Karten-Treiber: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
Karten-Treiber (GPU #2): igdumd64 igd10umd64 igdumdx32 igd10umd32
Subsys-ID: 210f17aa
Subsys-ID (GPU #2): 211317aa
Treiber-Datum: 11-16-2012
Treiber-Datum (GPU #2): 5-4-2012
Treiber-Version: 8.970.100.7000
Treiber-Version (GPU #2): 8.792.5.2000
Vendor-ID: 0x1002
Vendor-ID (GPU #2): 0x8086
WebGL-Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)
windowLayerManagerRemote: true
AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d
AzureContentBackend: direct2d
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

Comment 2

[Patrick Storz]

Attachment: Screenshot tfrom GitHub's markdown editor

Here's a screenshot, taken on https://github.com/legege/searchwp/wiki/Documentation/_edit

Comment 3

[Morgan]

Just checking to say I have the same problem. Windows 8.1 x64 fully updated to March 28 2015. Firefox 36.0.4, ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 HD 256MB RAM.

Comment 4

[Vitor Cunha]

I can confirm that I've noticed some issues here and there (Mobility Radeon HD 3650 and Windows 8.1 x64), but it's not nearly as bad as before.
Instantbird does also suffer from the same issues (once in a while).

Comment 5

[Loic]

Morgan and Vitor, could you paste the "graphics" section from the page about:support, please.

In addition, did you test without the MS update?

Comment 6

[Morgan]

Attachment: Screenshot of about:support graphics as requested

Attached is my about:support graphics as requested.

Comment 7

[Morgan]

(In reply to Loic from comment #5)
> In addition, did you test without the MS update?

I installed the machine a week ago using the December 2014 Windows 8.1 with Update ISO from MSDN filename:en-gb_windows_8.1_with_update_x64_dvd_6051481 sha1:c99a6ec2de4a71def522989d2242cb34ab860a0d 

therefore I am unable to uninstall the update.

Comment 8

[Loic]

(In reply to Morgan Pugh from comment #6)
> Created attachment 8585085 [details]
> Screenshot of about:support graphics as requested
> 
> Attached is my about:support graphics as requested.

I checked on AMD's website, for your GPU, the last driver is ver. 8.97.100.7, which is already installed on your machine.

Comment 9

[Morgan]

(In reply to Loic from comment #8)
> I checked on AMD's website, for your GPU, the last driver is ver.
> 8.97.100.7, which is already installed on your machine.

Yeah this is a pretty old mobile GPU so it isn't going to get any more driver updates. 

The corruption issue was, as far as I know, fixed pretty well in the past. Not sure why it is popping up again. It isn't happening all that much though so for me at least it is a very very low priority thing. Having said that I don't want it to get as bad as it was before. I had to switch to Chrome for a couple of months and I don't think I would switch back to Firefox if I had to again.

Comment 10

[u279076]

Please roll-back to a previous Firefox version (I suggest Firefox 35) to confirm if this is a regression we introduced or a faulty Windows update.

Comment 11

[Vitor Cunha]

Attachment: about:support (ff36.0.4 on W8.1 x64 - Mobility HD3650)

As requested by Loic here is the Graphics section of about:support (Windows 8.1 x64 running Firefox 36.0.4 on a legacy ATI/AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3650)

Comment 12

[u279076]

(In reply to Vitor Cunha from comment #11)
> Created attachment 8585760 [details]
> about:support (ff36.0.4 on W8.1 x64 - Mobility HD3650)
> 
> As requested by Loic here is the Graphics section of about:support (Windows
> 8.1 x64 running Firefox 36.0.4 on a legacy ATI/AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3650)

I checked AMD's website and it appears your driver version correlates to the Beta legacy driver. The current stable version is 8.97.100.7 (Catalyst 13.1 - 1/20/2013). Can you please confirm this bug reproduces with the current stable version of the driver?

Comment 13

[Vitor Cunha]

(In reply to Anthony Hughes, QA Mentor (:ashughes) from comment #12)
> I checked AMD's website and it appears your driver version correlates to the
> Beta legacy driver. The current stable version is 8.97.100.7 (Catalyst 13.1
> - 1/20/2013). Can you please confirm this bug reproduces with the current
> stable version of the driver?

Yes, it does. I installed the beta driver in hopes of solving this issue (and it did indeed seem to make things better, it's hard to replicate the bug).

Some other considerations to previous comments:
- In Windows 8.1 there isn't the option to remove the platform update (which is a preparation for IE11 in Windows 7), because IE11 is already built-in to the system.

- The issue is hard to replicate (FF36), I can only notice it on some rare occasions when the window lost focus and upon regaining focus some fonts are blurred (I believe it was mostly on pages that have dynamic loading via Javascript).
The issue was more noticeable in Instantbird, but I've haven't used it that much recently.

I don't believe the issue is anything major at this point, it was just a confirmation in sequence of a report in the previous ticket.
Hopefully, if all goes well, these cards will be gone of "circulation" before the issue escalates to something more serious.