1181870 - Black rectangles over content and browser

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Graphics, defect)

Description

[Caspy7]

Attachment: 1 - 8S66K7p.png

A user on reddit is reporting black rectangles over the content and browser areas with normal browsing.  
I will paste the post text below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/3cl8kk/firefox_39_black_rectangles_and_other_rendering/
=====
Just started having this strange issue where the screen would go black and sometimes cursor over would return the screen to normal in that section or area.

https://imgur.com/a/sXVFM

At times the tab and menu section are also affected.
=====

User reports that Graphics drivers are up to date and disabling hardware acceleration resolves the issue.
I have asked them to post their graphics profile in a comment below.
Please advise of any additional info or steps needed.

Comment 1

[Caspy7]

Attachment: 2 - fGoGWy8.png

Comment 2

[Caspy7]

Attachment: 3 - LT8Mz9d.png

Comment 3

[Caspy7]

The reporter currently doesn't desire to create an account so I am passing along the graphics information:

Graphics
Adapter Description	AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
Adapter Drivers	aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
Adapter RAM	1024
Asynchronous Pan/Zoom	none
ClearType Parameters	Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: R ClearType Level: 50 Enhanced Contrast: 50
Device ID	0x6739
DirectWrite Enabled	false (6.2.9200.17292)
Driver Date	11-20-2014
Driver Version	14.501.1003.0
GPU #2 Active	false
GPU Accelerated Windows	0/1 Basic (OMTC)
Subsys ID	31101682
Vendor ID	0x1002
WebGL Renderer	Google Inc. -- ANGLE (AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0)
windowLayerManagerRemote	true
AzureCanvasBackend	skia
AzureContentBackend	cairo
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend	cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated	0
=====

I can pass along any further requests or you can interact with them on the linked reddit post.

Comment 4

[Nicolas Silva [:nical]]

Does the user have the issue permanently, or is it happening sometimes sporadically? It would be interesting to know, because looking at crashstats [1] I can see crashes on firefox 39 with the same os version, gpu and driver configurations, which tends to indicate that the browser is still usable enough for users to have time to run into crashes (if the issue was permanent the browser would be downright unusable, I doubt we'd see much in crashstats).
If it is not happening permanently, any clue about ways to trigger the issue would help. Does it reproduce more easily with certain web pages? Is it happening more often when the os is running low on memory?

Also, thanks a lot for filing the bug.


[1] https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/search/?platform=Windows&adapter_vendor_id=0x1002&adapter_device_id=0x6739&adapter_driver_version=~14.501.1003.0&platform_version=~6.1.7601&_facets=signature&_columns=date&_columns=signature&_columns=version&_columns=build_id&_columns=platform&_columns=platform_version#crash-reports

Comment 5

[Milan Sreckovic [:milan] (needinfo for best results)]

The configuration from comment 3 is after the user disabled hardware acceleration, right?  From what I can tell, we don't even know about Radeon HD6800, we should at least add those devices in so that we can downloadable blocklist if necessary?

Comment 6

[u279076]

(In reply to Milan Sreckovic [:milan] from comment #5)
> The configuration from comment 3 is after the user disabled hardware
> acceleration, right?  From what I can tell, we don't even know about Radeon
> HD6800, we should at least add those devices in so that we can downloadable
> blocklist if necessary?

The actual card according to the device ID is "Barts PRO [Radeon HD 6850]". I did a quick search and it's not an easy card to find. No retailers in my area carry the card anymore. There are a few on ebay but they mostly seem to be shipped from Europe or Asia. It seems like amazon.com has some so maybe one of our US folks could order one and ship it up to Canada.

Comment 7

[juanelo11]

Hi,
I'm having the same issue.
I already tried disabling Hardware Acceleration and turning layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled to false (according to this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1031537).

I'm running Firefox 39 on Windows 7 32 bits.
Specs: http://www3.nd.edu/~dhoelzle/Homeworks/Dell_OptiPlex_3010_spec_sheet.pdf

GPU:
Intel HD Graphics 2500
Dedicated Video Memory: 64 mb.
Shared System Memory: 1492 mb.

Comment 8

[u279076]

Thanks for reporting here @juanelo11. I have a few follow up questions for you.

1. Can you please attach a copy of the Graphics section from about:support to this bug?
2. Does the issue reproduce consistently or does it seem to happen randomly?
3. If it's random, do you have any clues as to what happens just before this bug appears (ie. what behaviour seems to trigger this bug)?
4. Is it happening more often when your system is running low on memory?

Thanks

Comment 9

[juanelo11]

(In reply to Anthony Hughes, QA Mentor (:ashughes) from comment #8)
> Thanks for reporting here @juanelo11. I have a few follow up questions for
> you.
> 
> 1. Can you please attach a copy of the Graphics section from about:support
> to this bug?
> 2. Does the issue reproduce consistently or does it seem to happen randomly?
> 3. If it's random, do you have any clues as to what happens just before this
> bug appears (ie. what behaviour seems to trigger this bug)?
> 4. Is it happening more often when your system is running low on memory?
> 
> Thanks

Hi,
Sorry for the late response.
Here are the answers:
1. See attachment: "about-support_juanelo11.txt".
2. It happens randomly.
3 and 4. I dont know why it happens but is usually when i have lots of tabs open so the computer is running on low memory.

Regards,

Comment 10

[juanelo11]

Attachment: about-support_juanelo11.txt

Comment 11

[u279076]

Thanks for that information. Based on your information I'm wondering if you might be hitting a different issue with a similar symptom. The original report indicates that disabling hardware acceleration resolved this but you're saying it doesn't. You could be hitting an out-of-memory issue.

Milan, do you have any thoughts on this?

Comment 12

[Milan Sreckovic [:milan] (needinfo for best results)]

Likely a different bug; trying a nightly and seeing if there are any errors reported in about:support graphics section would also be useful.

Comment 13

[u279076]

@juanelo11, can you please do some testing along the lines of what Milan has suggested in comment 12 and report back?

Comment 14

[Gregory Pappas [:gregp]]

No response in 8 years, closing.