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Firefox 4 also crashing due to outdated graphics drivers
After reading a new post from Mozilla, it appears as though Google isn't the only browser maker having a hard time with outdated graphics drivers. As Mozilla inches closer and closer to the final release of Firefox 4 -- which, of course, packs hardware accelerated rendering kung fu -- the company's Benoit Jacob has posted a plea to its users.Please update your graphics drivers.
Like Google, Mozilla has noticed higher volumes of crash reports from Firefox 4 users who were running stale drivers. In addition to offering a general reminder to update your drivers, Mozilla has also posted a listing of the video card drivers which have been added to the Firefox 4 blocklist. If your driver is listed, it's imperative you update if you want to get the best performance out of Firefox 4.
Comments
13
Subscribe to commentsJoshMar 7th 2011 8:14AM
Are they entirely sure it is just the graphics drivers? I have a 9500GT variant and while it isn't the greatest GPU in the world, all the drivers are up to date as of last week and Firefox 4 still lags and freezes when I turn on hardware acceleration. It's the only new feature that isn't working for me.
XenoMar 7th 2011 5:44PM
@Josh - I thought graphics acceleration was not on my default?
sdfsdfsdfMar 7th 2011 9:08AM
Many notebook users will not be able to update, because the graphics chip manufacturer's driver will deny installation and the notebook manufacturers are not keeping their drivers up-to-date.
EuroSceptiCMar 7th 2011 11:12AM
Turn it off... Always someone is keeping back the development... Like IE 6 users or, or, or...
At least updating the drivers isn't so difficult. If some can't, it's their problem. Just turn HWA off.
You can't run everything new with 10 years old computer. Can't you? If the manufacters don't update the drivers, also isn't problem that concerns everyone. Let 'em update or choose your Brand more carefully.
BenoitMar 7th 2011 11:22AM
Note that the first link is broken, you want: http://blog.mozilla.com/bjacob/2011/03/04/upgrade-your-graphics-drivers/
@ Josh: yes, we are entirely sure that it's drivers. During the beta cycle we've fixed tons of our own bugs too, but these ones are driver crashes. Thanks to blacklisting these old drivers, we've brought down to zero the number of major graphics-related crashes.
@ sdfsdfsdf: Yeah, we know, as I mentioned in the post. Sad :-( Hopefully this pressures OEM a bit into making newer drivers availables.
jacob.benoit.1Mar 7th 2011 11:25AM
@ Josh: have you made a bug report? Believe it or not, this kind of bug report is very useful to us. Obviously Firefox 4 runs well on our own hardware so the only way that we become aware of performance problems is through bug reports. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi -> Core -> Graphics
XenoMar 7th 2011 5:49PM
@jacob.benoit.1 - lol you guys actually read that stuff.
jacob.benoit.1Mar 7th 2011 11:26AM
@ Josh: have you made a bug report? Believe it or not, this kind of bug report is very useful to us. Obviously Firefox 4 runs well on our own hardware so the only way that we become aware of performance problems is through bug reports. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi -> Core -> Graphics
JoshMar 7th 2011 11:55AM
@jacob.benoit.1
No, I didn't. I will as soon as I am at home again and can get the required info (at work now running the latest 3.6.x release)
XenoMar 7th 2011 5:38PM
I do updated my drivers but Firefox still keeps crashing - it happens on various computers. (but I'll be honest it have a lot less now but it still happens)
Another persistent issue that I've been having is that whenever I upload images at www.allalbumcovers.com - 'sometimes' (I don't know why) Firefox freezes, but only in appearance, 'activity still continues' but it only becomes apparent when I wiggle my mouse around, whenever I stop moving my mouse the browser 'looks like' its frozen again, like I'm looking at a screenshot (even though activity is actually still progressing) but it doesn't show it visually unless I move my mouse (like I'm playing red-light, green-light or 123). I've also noticed that whenever this happens media on www.youtube.com won't work, in fact it whenever I try to play videos on Youtube the browser 'genuinely' becomes frozen for several minutes at a time.
This is a little annoying because the only way I know how to resolve this is by reloading Firefox.
JoshMar 7th 2011 8:53PM
@Xeno
It isn't. I turned it on. It was the first thing I did when I installed the beta (beta 5 is when I did) and the first thing I check with each update. It has gotten better but it still is a downgrade in terms of performance.
XenoMar 8th 2011 4:49AM
@Josh - @Apocalyptic 0n3 - argh, what's wrong with my head!
I meant, I thought graphics acceleration 'was on' by default (for Firefox 4).
On Firefox's the release note's website for beta 12:-
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0b12/releasenotes/
it says that Direct2D hardware has been enabled
by 'Direct2D hardware acceleration' I'm assuming they're referring to 'graphics acceleration' ... I could be wrong (what do I know, lol) but if you know of a method of using the computers graphics card to boost Firefox's performance I'd very much like to know about it--I have a netbook, it's not the most powerful thing in world (and they call them 'net'books) anything that heightens performance would be a definite plus.
Happy International Women's Day everyone!
XenoMar 10th 2011 1:05AM
@Josh - I found these
Direct 3D hardware acceleration:-
[ http://videos.mozilla.org/serv/mozhacks/flight-of-the-navigator/ ]
Direct 2D hardware acceleration:-
[ http://people.mozilla.com/~vladimir/demos/photos.svg ]