Screen randomly gets corrupted

Regardless of what sites I am browsing the screen can get corrupted, including menu bars, download windows, etc. This also includes minimizing Firefox to go do something else in Windows, and all or part of the Firefox screen will pop back up, but will be more like a "ghost image" of it, i.e. mousing over things will reveal what *should* be there, making that part of the Firefox ghost-image disappear. This also happens to a lesser extent with Thunderbird.

Try to disable hardware acceleration.
*Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
If disabling hardware acceleration works then check if there is an update available for your graphics display driver.

Similar Messages

MacBook screen randomly gets very dark

My MacBook is from 2007, so it is old and has its problems. I am currently in college and use my iPad primarily for school work. Thank God I got this iPad a few weeks ago because I did not know my computer would have such a huge problem! When I turned it on one day, it was all normal, and randomly the screen got so dark, it looked like the computer had shut down on me. I knew it was still turned on though because the little light was indicating that it was on and it was still making the cd drive/booting up sounds. After a while, I noticed that the screen just went very very dim, because I could still slightly see the webpage I was on. Turning up the brightness of the screen did nothing to help, same with restarting the computer. Sometimes the screen would come back to the normal brightness, until I would go to do something on the internet and it would go very dark again. It's so unpredictable, I don't even want to deal with it anymore. But there are some things for school I just need my laptop for rather than my iPad and I really need some help trying to fix it!! I seriously cannot afford to buy a new MacBook right now, so I need to get this dim screen fixed so this computer can last me the rest of the semester.

It sounds like screen is failing. There is no fix if this is the problem.
Try Resetting the SMC
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
There are special deals for students. You can get a MacBook Air starting around $750.
If you do purchase a new computer, get 8GB RAM. RAM is soldered in and you can't upgrade later.
Check out Apple's Special Financing link.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/finance/instant_credit

Dock gets corrupted on Iintel machines/10.4 after restoring from disk image

Hi all,
I run a script at home that creates an image of my boot disk every night (it reboots into another volume, runs SuperDuper! and boots back into boot volume. I also use master disk images to deploy Macs at work. Every time an image is restored the dock becomes a mess, it looks something like this:
http://a-world.net/files/dockmess1.jpg
...random icons pointing to random files, example, this is what used to be a Firefox icon, not:
http://a-world.net/files/dockmess2.jpg
This only happens on Intel Macs and started to happen recently after one the system updates. It wasn't happening under 10.4.6 I think but it started some time after.
What's even weirder is that restoring com.apple.dock.plist from backup (Retrospect) doesn't seem to help, the prefs get corrupted anyway. Is there any other prefs file responsible for maintaining links betwen items in the Dock and originals? By the way desktop shortcuts do not get messed up, only the dock.
Any ideas? This is very annoying. Thanks.

This behavior is happening to quite a few of our computers. What they all have in common is that they are Intel Macs that have been upgraded to 10.4.10. I have verified on our test boxes that the problem does not occur with 10.4.9, then appears in 10.4.10. Don't know why.

Starting to get corrupted files

Since I upgraded to Lightroom 4 last week, I've had two occasions where Windows 7 operating system at boot tells me I have corrupt files on the separate 2TB drive I use to store Lightroom catalog and photos on. One difference between my LR3 vs LR4 settings was that I turned on the option to write XMP data to files per advice from Adobe evangelist that this is a better backup strategy in case LR catalog gets corrupt. Wondering whether the LR 4 background process to write out XMP is causing the problem.
It might be a self inflicted wound, as last night, I was importing iPad screenshot PNG files into Bridge, batch renaming them and then exporting them to hard drive as JPG (when is Lightroom going to support PNG?) and synchronizing that folder in LR4 so that I can view in LR4. Maybe the fact that I have LR4 and Bridge open at the same time and doing some operations corrupted them? LR4 got stuck at 1% progress in creating previews, so left the computer on overnight and when I come back in morning, black screen of death. When reboot, says I have to check that drive and finds lots of corrupt record segments. Never had this problem with LR3 and Bridge open at same time before LR4 and turning on the option to write XMP data to files.

I am experiencing reports of corrupted files as well!!! First report of corrupted files came the day after I installed Lightroom 4. No problems while I was using Ligthroom 3. So far, it seems to only occur with JPG-files.
I have about 10 000 photos stored on a Windows Home Server, both JPG and RAW files. About one day after I had installed and started using Lightroom 4, the WHS server began to complain about "file conflicts" (This is actually the first time I have experienced this spesific error on the server). I then found that the reason was that a lot of JPG-files had been locked and then never unlocked again. I am a developer myself, and many years ago I had some experience of this problem due to some programs that failed to close the files. Whatever the reason was this time, it was making it impossible for the WHS server to duplicate these files to a second hard drive (on WHS, duplication of files is done by a service. And if this service is unable to duplicate a file in 24 hours, it may report "file conflicts"). First strange thing about this was that it seemed to happen only with JGP files, and with files shot many years ago. It have been many years since I made any changes to those photos. To make the locks go away, I restarted the server. This seemed to resolve the problem with the locks. My first thought was that one of the disks on the server was about to fail, but after my next experiences I am beginning to think that’s not the problem…
For a few days I did not use Lightroom, and in this period no problems was reported by the server. But then, after using Lightroom 4 again a few hours, the same problem occurs. I now started to do some more investigation. Using Event Viewer on the WHS, I found that WHS was reporting both file lock problems and some file corruptions, and pointed me to some specific JPG files. Checking the files, I found that the files had been changed the same day I installed and used Lightroom 4 for the first time. After some more checking I found some corrupt JPG files, as well. This was yesterday, and since then, I have not dared to use Lightroom 4.
Actually I think all JPG files I have browsed using Lightroom 4, has been modified. But only some of them became "locked" or corrupted. Checking the RAW files, could not find that they have not been touched. I store a lot of data on my WHS server and many types of files. But corruption has only been a problem with the JGP files…
If I used file explorer to preview the corrupted files, I still got a preview of some of them. And it was easy to see they were corrupted. Actually it looked like a number of photos have been merged together like a mosaic. Trying to open one of the corrupted files using Photoshop CS5, ended with a message saying it was impossible to read the file.
For now I am not able to do more testing of this problem, but I am planning to copy all the photos to an external USB disk, and then play around with it using Lightroom 4, to see if problem shows up again.
Some info about my computers:
I am using Windows 7 x64 on a Dell M6400 laptop with Lightroom 4 x64. The catalog resides on this laptop.
My WHS Server is of the first version released by Microsoft (not the 2011 version), but with all updates installed. All photos, both the JPG and the RAW files reside on a share on the WHS Server. I have been using this WHS server for many years now, and with both Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3 before the upgrade to Lightroom 4. During this time I have experienced one disk crash, but thanks to the file duplication no data was lost. The server is currently equipped with three physical disks; one 1.5TB, one 650 GB and one 2 TB.
Most of my JPG files are shot with a Canon IXUS 400 (many years ago). My RAW files are all shot with a Canon 5D Mk2, but those seem to be untouched.
I will report back as soon I have more information.

Shutdown screen randomly pops up when I start an app or try to charge

At first, the wake/sleep and volume up buttons, when pressed, would seem to activate each other. So whenever I'd go to turn the volume up my ipod would go into sleep mode and whenever I'd try to put the ipod into sleep mode the volume would get turned up. Very annoying and frustrating! Over time that problem subsided and I haven't experienced that problem in a long time, but every since then, whenever I start an app I've downloaded or plug the ipod in to charge, the shut down screen randomly pops up! Other than these rather annoying "glitches", my ipod has been working fine. I was thinking of waiting for the next software update before I send it in for repairs to see if that might fix the problem because I really do depend on my ipod in my day-to-day life. So I guess I have a few questions:
Has anyone else experienced theese problems?
Does anyone know whats going on with my ipod?
When is the next software update after 2.2 going to be available?

Hi,
Do you have a protective case on the iPod touch? If you do, try testing without the case.
Does the iPod have any signs of accidental damage or abuse?
Try resetting the iPod by holding the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons until you see the Apple logo as described here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305743
If the issue persists, try restoring the iPod touch. This article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414 will walk you through the restore process.
If the issue is not resolved by restoring the iPod, make a reservation with a Genius or call AppleCare.
http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
U.S. iPhone technical support: 1-800-MY-IPHONE (1-800-694-7466)
-Jason

Video conference gets corrupted about 2 minutes in. iChat 3 and 4 both.

I've been experiencing this with my mom and we can't figure out what the trick is.
She can video conference with my sister for a long time and never run into this issue.
I can video conference with anyone else for a long time and never run into this issue.
It only happens between my mom and I when we talk. After about a minute or two her video goes bad and it's hard to continue talking. She says my video is fine, and I can hear her, though the audio cuts in and out too.
I took a screen shot of what it looks like and put it on my site here:
http://www.briancovalt.com/scary.jpg
Does anyone have an idea of what's happening. She has a 2 year old iBook (I think 1.07Ghz G4). I'm using both a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (built in iSight) and a Quad-Core G5 (iSight attached on top) - the problem happens with both machines.
We just upgraded her router to the newest Airport basestation. She's got a super quick cable connection.
I'm using a Linksys router with a fast DSL connection at home (opened up my ports for iChat), and at work I'm connected to our blazing fast network.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks,
Brian,.

wow, thanks for the answer. It did it.
At first I thought you said to keep the bandwidth at no limit, so I just made the first change and we still experienced the problem. Then I re-read your suggestion and saw that you said to limit it at 500. After doing that we were able to chat without a problem.
Do you mind explaining that though? It doesn't make sense to me. I thought that if the video was getting corrupted it'd be because there wasn't enough bandwidth, and the last thing I'd think to do is to cap it.
Thanks again for the answer, it saved us from total confusion.
Brian.,

Just got the new iMac. The screen keeps jumping to the launch pad screen randomly when I am working in other applications. Please help.

Just got the new iMac. The screen keeps jumping to the launch pad screen randomly when I am working in other applications.
I have the magic mouse, don't know whether it is something to do with that? Any ideas?

If gumsie's suggestion isn't the answer, try logging into another account, like Guest, and see if you get the same behavior. You may need to clean the windows on the bottom of the mouse.

Jwc_properties.ini get corrupt sometimes

Hi,
I've read in some answers on this forum that the jwc_properties.ini file gets corrupted sometimes. The answer then is that this usually happens when the RPI is disconnected without a proper shutdown.
However, I have seen that the file gets corrupted in some error situations as well. For example, when I was testing how fast gpio pins can handle incoming triggers, I overloaded the system with input signals, which caused the usertest.sh to quit. In this case, the jwc_properties.ini file was always corrupt. I had to replace it by its original version to be able to continue.
Another possible problem is a power failure. Of course, you can use a UPS to overcome a power failure for a while, but if the power failure takes too long, then the UPS will run out of power as well. In that case, the RPI will be shut down at an arbitrary moment, and maybe also damage the jwc_properties.ini.
Is there a way to protect this file, so that corruptions never occur, or get corrected automatically?
Thanks,
Jef

Hi Sergey,
I didn't use DIRECTION_BOYH. What I did was using 2 gpio as output (to control a led), and 2 others as input. Each of the input gpio was connected to 1 of the leds, and observing 1 of the leds.
Then I created a loop to activate/deactivate both leds as fast as possible. I used an infinite loop in which I activated both leds, and then immediately deactivated the leds again.
With the input gpio, I just increased a counter by 1, each time a led was activated. Finally, I used a reporter imlet, that read the counter every 4 seconds, and showed the value on the std out.
I also didn't try to change the direction. I always used the same 2 pins for input, and the same 2 pins (different frm the input) for output.
When this setup led upto an error (due to the input not able to follow the output, I believe), I got some error messages on the screen, and hte usertest.sh stopped.
Then I restarted the usertest.sh (using sudo), and tried to start my application again (via netbeans). Then I always got an error that a gpio pin was not free, hence could not be setup, and for that reason the gpio reference I got was null, and resulted in a nullpointer exception when trying to address it (I don't remember if this was writing to the pins or adding a listener to the input pins)
Regards,
Jef

Screen graphics drawing corruption on iMac 11,1 Intel Core i7 2.8 GHz running OSX 10.6.8

iMac 11,1 Intel Core i7 2.8 GHz running OSX 10.6.8 with ATI Radeon HD 4850 display hardware has screen graphics drawing corruption. - some bizarre effects like a surround on two sides of main Firefox window with elements captured from the top and side of main screen. Toolbar buttons that walk off their positions when resizing a window? Mouse focal point offset in Firefox. Fuzzy sceen draws in Safari

Hello,
Have you blown the dust out lately?
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
iStat Menus...
http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/
And/or iStat Pro...
http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.

Firefox images sometimes get corrupt

hello im having a issue with firefox
sometimes when i switch tabs or just view images the images get corrupt
some of them are getting black things covering most of the images and rarely some crap (like a upside down blue triangle)
and when i was seeing many pages on file extensions and saw wikipedia the image got somehow corrupt, again, the black thing but in the bottom some white with some random blue
im using windows 10 build 9926
here is troubleshooting info
"application": {
"name": "Firefox",
"version": "36.0",
"buildID": "20150222232811",
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0",
"updateChannel": "release",
"supportURL": "https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/36.0/WINNT/en-US/",
"numTotalWindows": 1,
"numRemoteWindows": 0
"lockedPreferences": {},
"graphics": {
"numTotalWindows": 1,
"numAcceleratedWindows": 1,
"windowLayerManagerType": "Direct3D 11",
"windowLayerManagerRemote": true,
"adapterDescription": "NVIDIA GeForce G100",
"adapterVendorID": "0x10de",
"adapterDeviceID": "0x06e6",
"adapterSubsysID": "00000000",
"adapterRAM": "512",
"adapterDrivers": "nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um",
"driverVersion": "9.18.13.4144",
"driverDate": "2-3-2015",
"adapterDescription2": "",
"adapterVendorID2": "",
"adapterDeviceID2": "",
"adapterSubsysID2": "",
"adapterRAM2": "",
"adapterDrivers2": "",
"driverVersion2": "",
"driverDate2": "",
"isGPU2Active": false,
"direct2DEnabled": true,
"directWriteEnabled": true,
"directWriteVersion": "10.0.9926.6",
"webglRenderer": "Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce G100 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)",
"info": {
"AzureCanvasBackend": "direct2d",
"AzureSkiaAccelerated": 0,
"AzureFallbackCanvasBackend": "cairo",
"AzureContentBackend": "direct2d"
"javaScript": {
"incrementalGCEnabled": true
"accessibility": {
"isActive": false,
"forceDisabled": 0
"libraryVersions": {
"NSPR": {
"minVersion": "4.10.7",
"version": "4.10.7"
"NSS": {
"minVersion": "3.17.4 Basic ECC",
"version": "3.17.4 Basic ECC"
"NSSUTIL": {
"minVersion": "3.17.4",
"version": "3.17.4"
"NSSSSL": {
"minVersion": "3.17.4 Basic ECC",
"version": "3.17.4 Basic ECC"
"NSSSMIME": {
"minVersion": "3.17.4 Basic ECC",
"version": "3.17.4 Basic ECC"
"userJS": {
"exists": false
"extensions": [
"name": "Adblock Plus",
"version": "2.6.7",
"isActive": true,
"id": "{d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}"
"name": "Flash and Video Download",
"version": "1.68",
"isActive": true,
"id": "{bee6eb20-01e0-ebd1-da83-080329fb9a3a}"
"experiments": [],
"modifiedPreferences": {}
}

You can try to disable OMTC and leave hardware acceleration in Firefox enabled.
*about:config page: layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled = false
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar.
You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config
You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.
*Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration

My ipad wont start up - it looks like its is taking screen shots - the screen randomly flashes

my ipad just stopped working - the screen went black and i cant start it - I've tried to restore factory settings - but it still wont open. The screen randomly flashes - like its taking a screen shot - very bizzarre.
Please help - im really upset.

Hello emmbee74,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
If you reset your iPad to factory settings successfully and you're still having issues, then please look into getting your iPad serviced.
Repair & Service
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/repair/
Take care,
Alex H.

My ipod keeps getting corrupted and I have to reset it

My ipod keeps getting corrupted, and I have to keep resetting it. I have owned four ipods. Yes that's right. Four. I have been returning them but every single one does this. It is the same every time. I press the middle button when "Music" is selected, and the device completely shuts off when I do this and goes to the Apple icon. If I press play, then it will play songs, but only at random, and I cannot access my playlists. I have to reset the ipod to fix this problem. What's going on with this?
ipod Nano Windows XP

Im not sure EXACTLY what would cause this, but if you have had 4 nanos do the exact thing, its either a issue with the nanos being sold at the place your getting them at, like the local store in your area, or its a issue with your PC. I know some people report a issue with a certain malware program that sneaks on there system and causes havoc with the iPod service and in turn causes weird things with there pod.
The iPOd Service is a program that runs in the background of windows and, in basic terms, acts like the "Middle guy" translating things from the PC to the pod.
Scan your system for any viruses with a antivirus program and scan for malware with Ewido http://www.ewido.net/en/download Then download install and run the latest iPod updater on your nano here http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/

Screen randomly turns off or dims

I have an iBook G4, and every now and again the screen randomly turns off. It doesn't respond to pressing and holding the power button, the only way I can turn it back on is by both taking out the battery and unplugging it, waiting 30 seconds, putting the battery back in and restarting it. If I put the power lead in before restarting then the display switches off almost instantly during boot up.
Other times the screen randomly dims really dark so that you can only just see outlines, in this situation it responds to pressing the power button and then enter to shut it down, and then after booting it back up it's fine ...until the next time.
The problems happen as often as every five minutes on some days and then not at all on others. Both occur when using the battery AND power lead, often (but not always) when the power cord is moved. Also I can get my power cord to flicker between green and orange if I wiggle it - not a good idea I know, I don't do it regularly
I've tried resetting the PMU with no success. Also I've tried swapping my battery and power lead with a friend, they had no problems using mine (and couldn't replicate the green-orange flickering), and I still had problems using theirs.
I read someone else's topic with suggested that the problem could be deficient soldering on the DC-In Board, so I've had a look. I'm no expert but the soldering looks ok to me, except one of the 3 metal legs connecting the actual socket bit to the board (the one which would be at the bottom under the yellow tape in http://www.macrecycling.com/images/products/922-6254.gif ) is looking a bit black and has discoloured the yellow tape black immediately on top of it. Looking at the circuit board though, this leg doesn't seem to connect to anything!
I've read numerous topics regarding similar situations and popular diagnosis include problems with:
* battery/power lead (I'm pretty confident it's not this)
* DC-In Board
* GPU
* Inverter cable
* Inverter
* Backlight
From the information I've given does anyone know what is most likely the cause?
I'm a poor student, my iBook's well past it's warranty, and I hear repairs start in the £100 region (also I've rumours the apple stores have stopped taking in iBooks for repairs now). So home repair is pretty much my only option at the moment, and any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

I had the same trouble, but today my iBook died after draining the battery. It just drained it and it did not charged the batt while connected, also the iBook makes a small buzz sound while connected (and it does not do so while powered by the batt).
I researched and found that it is the DC board's fault, because it failed at charging while working fine on pure battery power.
i confirmed because powering up always worked perfectly while on battery power, (just as in your case).
The blackness you describe is possibly a short circuit, and you should look into it as quick as possible, before you get to a situation like mine.

My mac air died, after i reinstall from dvd drive, when i boot up again, i saw a prohibit sign showing up on the screen, then get to my logon screen. After logon, it takes very long time to load any application. pls help

my mac air died, after i reinstall from dvd drive, when i boot up again, i saw a prohibit sign showing up on the screen, then get to my logon screen. After logon, it takes very long time to load any application. pls help

OK. If you believe that.
When the disk is starting to die it can be bad for a moment and then be good for a while. If there was no problem while you were checking it of course it shows up good.
I tell you those are the signs of a disk that is about to die.
Allan

To whom it may concern Hi my name is Silvana Pires,I purchased an I Phone 4 S Model A 1387 EMC 2430 SCC.ID DCG E 2430 AIC.579 C-E 243 A in California one year ago,Unfortunately its Not working well the screen is getting black,and the phone is in goo

To whom it may concern
Hi my name is Silvana Pires,I purchased an I Phone 4 S Model A 1387 EMC 2430 SCC.ID DCG E
2430 AIC.579 C-E 243 A in California one year ago,Unfortunately its Not working well the screen is getting black,and the phone is in good shape I can prove it,the Apple support in Brazil doenst work like in USA.
I look forward to your reply and a resolution of this problem.
Thank you very much!!!

You are welcome. I'm glad you got it back up.
(1) You say you did the symbolic link. I will assume this is set correctly; it's very important that it is.
(2) I don't know what you mean by "Been feeding the [email protected] for several weeks now, 700 emails each day at least." After the initial training period, SpamAssassin doesn't learn from mail it has already processed correctly. At this point, you only need to teach SpamAssassin when it is wrong. [email protected] should only be getting spam that is being passed as clean. Likewise, [email protected] should only be getting legitimate mail that is being flagged as junk. You are redirecting mail to both [email protected] and [email protected] ... right? SpamAssassin needs both.
(3) Next, as I said before, you need to implement those "Frontline spam defense for Mac OS X Server." Once you have that done and issue "postfix reload" you can look at your SMTP log in Server Admin and watch as Postfix blocks one piece of junk mail after another. It's kind of cool.
(4) Add some SARE rules:
Visit http://www.rulesemporium.com/rules.htm and download the following rules:
70sareadult.cf
70saregenlsubj0.cf
70sareheader0.cf
70sarehtml0.cf
70sareobfu0.cf
70sareoem.cf
70sarespoof.cf
70sarestocks.cf
70sareunsub.cf
72sare_redirectpost
Visit http://www.rulesemporium.com/other-rules.htm and download the following rules:
backhair.cf
bogus-virus-warnings.cf
chickenpox.cf
weeds.cf
Copy these rules to /etc/mail/spamassassin/
Then stop and restart mail services.
There are other things you can do, and you'll find differing opinions about such things. In general, I think implementing the "Frontline spam defense for Mac OS X Server" and adding the SARE rules will help a lot. Good luck!

Screen randomly gets corrupted

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