Firefox, my video driver, and EQ2. Pt.2 [Archive]

Felshades

09-28-2011, 05:05 AM

Okay, so I posted about this before and I've come to a conclusion but I dont know how to go about fixing it or reporting it to the other side.I updated my video driver and that seemed to fix the problem I was having(black screen, video driver recover when running eq2 in windowed mode with firefox running in the background; firefox would outright crash when that happened leading me to believe firefox caused the driver crash), but then firefox updated today. I no longer can run firefox and the game during raid or anything else even remotely important because it's causing my video to seize up again. My screen will freeze for a few seconds at a time as if my framerate tanked but my framerate and latency are both fine. I've reduced the graphics to nothing and it didn't help either.I'm pretty convinced that firefox is the culprit because when I terminate the process, it works normally. Even more odd, it only does it with eq2. No other game or application causes this.I don't know if its specifically a compatibility issue with this game client or if firefox needs to kick a few bugs out of v7, or if Nvidia needs to step up to the plate, but I figure I'd update you guys on what was up with this issue.Annoying as hell. Lol

deadcrickets2

09-28-2011, 09:49 AM

The newer version of Firefox uses hardware acceleration. It's not recommended for use as a browser while playing a game. I don't recommend any browser that uses acceleration (Internet Explorer 10 included) while playing a game. I would suggest using another browser such as Opera while you play games and keep Firefox as your main browser outside of it.<a href="http://www.trishtech.com/internet/disable_hardware_acceleration_in_firefox_4.php" target="_blank">You may also opt to turn off the acceleration of Firefox</a>.

Jrral

09-28-2011, 12:59 PM

I've also noticed some video oddness with hardware acceleration (page contents rendering on top when the browser's underneath other windows, that sort of thing). I'd recommend going into Options, Advanced, the General tab, the Browsing section in the middle, and unchecking the "Use hardware acceleration when available" checkbox. Close and restart the browser and you should be good.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-28-2011, 01:03 PM

I'll just echo the advise above as it is very valid and worth a try <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Thanks everyone!

Iad

09-28-2011, 02:51 PM

<cite>Jrral@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>I've also noticed some video oddness with hardware acceleration (page contents rendering on top when the browser's underneath other windows, that sort of thing). I'd recommend going into Options, Advanced, the General tab, the Browsing section in the middle, and unchecking the "Use hardware acceleration when available" checkbox. Close and restart the browser and you should be good.</blockquote>Doesn't fix it for me, I've had hardware acceleration disabled for a while now, and like the OP, the new version of Firefox and EQ2 do not play nice together for whatever reason.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-28-2011, 03:10 PM

<cite>Iad wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Jrral@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>I've also noticed some video oddness with hardware acceleration (page contents rendering on top when the browser's underneath other windows, that sort of thing). I'd recommend going into Options, Advanced, the General tab, the Browsing section in the middle, and unchecking the "Use hardware acceleration when available" checkbox. Close and restart the browser and you should be good.</blockquote>Doesn't fix it for me, I've had hardware acceleration disabled for a while now, and like the OP, the new version of Firefox and EQ2 do not play nice together for whatever reason.</blockquote>What is the exact issue you are experiencing and how do you encounter it?

Iad

09-28-2011, 03:50 PM

I cannot reproduce it. But it caused a fatal driver error that I have never seen before.I had firefox 7 running in the back ground. I launched eq2 and immediately the screen flickered for a few seconds and then the eq2 window came back up and had random color pixels in the eq2 window, and then fatally crashed. It has not happened since.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-28-2011, 03:52 PM

<cite>Iad wrote:</cite><blockquote>I cannot reproduce it. But it caused a fatal driver error that I have never seen before.I had firefox 7 running in the back ground. I launched eq2 and immediately the screen flickered for a few seconds and then the eq2 window came back up and had random color pixels in the eq2 window, and then fatally crashed. It has not happened since.</blockquote>How did you confirm the above didn't fix an issue for you?In any case, what you describe might be completely unrelated but since it produced a fatal error, it should be logged. If you open a support ticket and include your MSINFo file, we can review that log.

Iad

09-28-2011, 03:56 PM

<cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Iad wrote:</cite><blockquote>I cannot reproduce it. But it caused a fatal driver error that I have never seen before.I had firefox 7 running in the back ground. I launched eq2 and immediately the screen flickered for a few seconds and then the eq2 window came back up and had random color pixels in the eq2 window, and then fatally crashed. It has not happened since.</blockquote>How did you confirm the above didn't fix an issue for you?In any case, what you describe might be completely unrelated but since it produced a fatal error, it should be logged. If you open a support ticket and include your MSINFo file, we can review that log.</blockquote>Because I've had that feature disabled for at least a month in firefox.I checked the event viewer after it happened and the error mentioned something about DirectX9 Render Device, 3d. so I uninstalld the 3d nvidia drivers. So maybe that fixed it.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-28-2011, 04:06 PM

Doesn't sound like you had the same issue as above.

deadcrickets2

09-28-2011, 04:28 PM

<cite>Iad wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Jrral@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>I've also noticed some video oddness with hardware acceleration (page contents rendering on top when the browser's underneath other windows, that sort of thing). I'd recommend going into Options, Advanced, the General tab, the Browsing section in the middle, and unchecking the "Use hardware acceleration when available" checkbox. Close and restart the browser and you should be good.</blockquote>Doesn't fix it for me, I've had hardware acceleration disabled for a while now, and like the OP, the new version of Firefox and EQ2 do not play nice together for whatever reason.</blockquote>It may be related to the new memory management being done by Firefox 7. I would suggest <a href="http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions" target="_blank">posting on their forums</a> to see if it's a known bug.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-28-2011, 04:31 PM

Thanks for the info deadcrickets!

Felshades

09-28-2011, 07:24 PM

Well I managed to get my video driver to completely hardcore crash while I was at the Ring War battlefield waiting for the PQ to start by scrolling my mouse wheel to zoom my camera in. I first lost my UI, while my screen was seizing up, then I scrolled it back out and got it to stabilize... then tried to zoom back in, it happened again. When I did it a third time, my screen went black and my video driver completely crashed.I never have had this kind of problem with browsers.. who the hell needs memory management with a browser? Who the hell needs hardware acceleration with a browser? Leave it alone, it wasn't broke to begin with.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-28-2011, 07:26 PM

Submit a support ticket with DXDIAG/MSINFO just in case its not caused by Firefox. The description you are giving could be many things.

Felshades

09-28-2011, 07:30 PM

<cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>Submit a support ticket with DXDIAG/MSINFO just in case its not caused by Firefox. The description you are giving could be many things.</blockquote>Ive sent them to you before. Someone else apparently took over the ticket while you were gone for the weekend and couldn't do anything because what they suggested I'd already tried.As a side note; I just tried to disable acceleration in my browser and it outright crashed it. LOL.I'll make the files and send them again, but I don't think it'll tell you anything that I havent sent or tried. This browser's becoming a bigger pile of <insert euphemism for dung> every update :/

Felshades

09-28-2011, 07:43 PM

deadcrickets2

09-29-2011, 03:06 AM

<cite>Nadirah@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>Submit a support ticket with DXDIAG/MSINFO just in case its not caused by Firefox. The description you are giving could be many things.</blockquote>Ive sent them to you before. Someone else apparently took over the ticket while you were gone for the weekend and couldn't do anything because what they suggested I'd already tried.As a side note; I just tried to disable acceleration in my browser and it outright crashed it. LOL.I'll make the files and send them again, but I don't think it'll tell you anything that I havent sent or tried. This browser's becoming a bigger pile of every update :/</blockquote>The browser installation itself may also be corrupted (profile corruption). You can try uninstalling it (removing preferences, etc) and re-installing to see what happens. I still don't recommend using any hardware accellerated browser with any game.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-29-2011, 11:11 AM

I haven't had any issues with hardware acceleration. What type of plug-ins/add-ons are you using? Perhaps I can try it with the same set. Feel free to PM me the info.

deadcrickets2

09-29-2011, 12:57 PM

<cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I haven't had any issues with hardware acceleration. What type of plug-ins/add-ons are you using? Perhaps I can try it with the same set. Feel free to PM me the info.</blockquote>I have. I've run into it slowing down my game and when I get back to the browser it's unbearably sluggish until game is ended. As for the other issues, not personally.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-29-2011, 01:03 PM

<cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I haven't had any issues with hardware acceleration. What type of plug-ins/add-ons are you using? Perhaps I can try it with the same set. Feel free to PM me the info.</blockquote>I have. I've run into it slowing down my game and when I get back to the browser it's unbearably sluggish until game is ended. As for the other issues, not personally.</blockquote>I'd be very interested in tracking this down. Mind opening a ticket and listing your plug-ins/addons and version of firefox you are on? Include Msinfo too.

Felshades

09-29-2011, 07:07 PM

The only plugin that I use with firefox is NoScript. Acceleration is off, and I haven't had too many issues(read no crashing) and I got a reply on the ticket from another TSR that asked me to uninstall and reinstall my graphics driver. Did that, but haven't gotten a chance to test it yet. I have a raid tonight and I can update this with if anything has changed.Since I'd most always had a cruddy card low framerate or some type of slowdown was the norm for me, but outright crashing was not.

deadcrickets2

09-29-2011, 09:02 PM

<cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I haven't had any issues with hardware acceleration. What type of plug-ins/add-ons are you using? Perhaps I can try it with the same set. Feel free to PM me the info.</blockquote>I have. I've run into it slowing down my game and when I get back to the browser it's unbearably sluggish until game is ended. As for the other issues, not personally.</blockquote>I'd be very interested in tracking this down. Mind opening a ticket and listing your plug-ins/addons and version of firefox you are on? Include Msinfo too.</blockquote>I don't use plug-ins on Firefox anymore. I've switched to Opera as my main. And mine I tracked down specifically to the hardware acceleration.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-30-2011, 11:37 AM

<cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I haven't had any issues with hardware acceleration. What type of plug-ins/add-ons are you using? Perhaps I can try it with the same set. Feel free to PM me the info.</blockquote>I have. I've run into it slowing down my game and when I get back to the browser it's unbearably sluggish until game is ended. As for the other issues, not personally.</blockquote>I'd be very interested in tracking this down. Mind opening a ticket and listing your plug-ins/addons and version of firefox you are on? Include Msinfo too.</blockquote>I don't use plug-ins on Firefox anymore. I've switched to Opera as my main. And mine I tracked down specifically to the hardware acceleration.</blockquote>I've never turned it off nor is it off on any system here. I highly doubt it was hardware acceleration in and of itself.

Felshades

09-30-2011, 01:32 PM

<cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I haven't had any issues with hardware acceleration. What type of plug-ins/add-ons are you using? Perhaps I can try it with the same set. Feel free to PM me the info.</blockquote>I have. I've run into it slowing down my game and when I get back to the browser it's unbearably sluggish until game is ended. As for the other issues, not personally.</blockquote>I'd be very interested in tracking this down. Mind opening a ticket and listing your plug-ins/addons and version of firefox you are on? Include Msinfo too.</blockquote>I don't use plug-ins on Firefox anymore. I've switched to Opera as my main. And mine I tracked down specifically to the hardware acceleration.</blockquote>I've never turned it off nor is it off on any system here. I highly doubt it was hardware acceleration in and of itself.</blockquote>I stopped using opera years ago. Didn't like it. Turning off the acceleration helped but I'm not entirely sure if it's solved or not because the propblem was sporadic to begin with. It started after GU 61 and FF6. Updated drivers, fixed. FF7 comes out, back again.

deadcrickets2

09-30-2011, 05:39 PM

<cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>deadcrickets2 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I haven't had any issues with hardware acceleration. What type of plug-ins/add-ons are you using? Perhaps I can try it with the same set. Feel free to PM me the info.</blockquote>I have. I've run into it slowing down my game and when I get back to the browser it's unbearably sluggish until game is ended. As for the other issues, not personally.</blockquote>I'd be very interested in tracking this down. Mind opening a ticket and listing your plug-ins/addons and version of firefox you are on? Include Msinfo too.</blockquote>I don't use plug-ins on Firefox anymore. I've switched to Opera as my main. And mine I tracked down specifically to the hardware acceleration.</blockquote>I've never turned it off nor is it off on any system here. I highly doubt it was hardware acceleration in and of itself.</blockquote>In my case it was. Remember, each system is different. One of the requirements of hardware acceleration is a video card that is strong enough to handle it well. I have an older system. Whenever I have it turned on and use it with any game I lose from 15 to 20 FPS. Always.

Jrral

09-30-2011, 05:59 PM

<cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I've never turned it off nor is it off on any system here. I highly doubt it was hardware acceleration in and of itself.</blockquote>Remember that with DirectX (what Firefox is using), the acceleration is basically giving the browser direct access to the driver and hardware. Down that road lies a ton of strange and wonderful behavior guaranteed to make you tear your hair out. It's probably an issue specific to a particular type of hardware and/or particular driver versions.That sort of weird behavior is why we moved away from direct hardware access in the first place.

TSR-JoshuaM

09-30-2011, 06:31 PM

<cite>Jrral@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I've never turned it off nor is it off on any system here. I highly doubt it was hardware acceleration in and of itself.</blockquote>Remember that with DirectX (what Firefox is using), the acceleration is basically giving the browser direct access to the driver and hardware. Down that road lies a ton of strange and wonderful behavior guaranteed to make you tear your hair out. It's probably an issue specific to a particular type of hardware and/or particular driver versions.That sort of weird behavior is why we moved away from direct hardware access in the first place.</blockquote>I guess that's what I meant so we're all in agreement just nitpicking here <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

deadcrickets2

09-30-2011, 08:59 PM

<cite>Jrral@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>TSR-JoshuaM wrote:</cite><blockquote>I've never turned it off nor is it off on any system here. I highly doubt it was hardware acceleration in and of itself.</blockquote>Remember that with DirectX (what Firefox is using), the acceleration is basically giving the browser direct access to the driver and hardware. Down that road lies a ton of strange and wonderful behavior guaranteed to make you tear your hair out. It's probably an issue specific to a particular type of hardware and/or particular driver versions.That sort of weird behavior is why we moved away from direct hardware access in the first place.</blockquote>Correct. It's why I don't recommend it in any way shape or form for gamers. Keep an older browser around for in-game browsing.