Web pages showing completely black how do I fix?

[Deleted User] · 11/07/13 - 21:40

Hi
Websites are unobtainable screen is black you can't type anything in - any ideas? Need to use Internet!

chrisjr · 11/07/13 - 21:47

What browser are you using?
What computer operating system are you using?
Have you tried an alternative browser?
Is it every single website you visit or just certain ones?
If it is just certain ones post the web address of an example so we can check it out.

Basically you haven't told us nearly enough to help, so answers to the questions above will make it a lot easier to suggest a solution.

Oh yes, nearly forgot.
What device are you using to view the webpages on?
A PC?
A Tablet device (if so what one)
A Smartphone (if so what one)
Something else entirely (eg Smart TV)?

tealady · 11/07/13 - 23:40

What things are you able to currently able to do on this 'device'?
What is the device you are using?

[Deleted User] · 12/07/13 - 21:31

It's only just started doing this laptop is a year old, it's a HP Pavilion G series I was using Mozilla Firefox fine up to a few days ago, it's on all web pages, whatever I look at the screen is black - can't see the cursor flashing, my partner did a system restore but this hasn't worked - every evening it wants to update (15 plus items each time). Any ideas?
All other things are fine it's just web browsing that's the issue.

chrisjr · 12/07/13 - 21:40

Have you tried an alternative browser, eg Internet Explorer that is built into Windows? That will tell us if it is restricted to Firefox or is a more general problem.

If IE works OK then one of the easier ways to fix Firefox is to uninstall it and delete any files and folders it leaves behind then download it again and re-install.

You can use something like Mozbackup (http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/) to back-up things like Bookmarks from the current install and restore them to the new install.

[Deleted User] · 12/07/13 - 21:43

Thanks for reply - just tried using IE and it's coming up white screen same problem, nothing I am typing is showing.

chrisjr · 12/07/13 - 21:53

I presume you are using some other computer/tablet/smartphone to post on here at the moment?

One other thing to check is that you are actually connected to the interweb. On my Pavilion laptop one of the F keys (think it's F10) is the WiFi on off switch. Now because of the odd way HP configure the F keys it is very easy to turn off the WiFi by accidentally pressing the key. So make sure it's one (on my laptop the LED in the corner of the key is blue for on).

Fairly obviously a web browser will struggle to work properly if there is no internet connection

Though it should just throw up a "Page Not Found" or similar error not just go blank.

Anyway something to check first...

[Deleted User] · 12/07/13 - 21:56

Yes definately connected checked the settings in control panel and wifi button is lit

chrisjr · 12/07/13 - 22:08

Just to clarify something.

When you open Firefox or IE do you just get a completely blank window with no menu/toolbar at the top or is it just the bit where the web page would appear that is blank?

One thing you could try for IE is this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737

For Firefox it might be worth trying downloading it from the Mozilla website and installing it again from scratch, making sure you remove all traces of the old installation. As I posted above use Mozbackup if you want to retain any Bookmarks etc I've done the zap and reinstall trick on Firefox a couple of times when it's misbehaved and used Mozbackup to save and restore all the settings between installs.

[Deleted User] · 12/07/13 - 22:13

I get a toolbar but then the actual screen is black

chrisjr · 12/07/13 - 22:21

So you get the address box to enter a web address do you? Can you type anything into that and if so what then happens?

If you can type a web address but nothing happens or you get some error message try entering

212.58.244.68

into the address bar (no www. or anything just those numbers) and see if that opens the BBC website home page. If it does then that might mean the settings on your internet connection are screwed up.

[Deleted User] · 12/07/13 - 23:37

I couldn't get that at all it wouldn't let me type anything in, when I copied and pasted it just comes up with a smaller black box at the side, I have managed to get online with google chrome? never used this before, would you suggest me uninstalling IE and mozilla?

chrisjr · 13/07/13 - 02:10

You can uninstall Firefox but it is not possible to truly uninstall IE as it is tightly integrated into Windows. "Uninstalling" IE reverts back to an earlier version if it has been upgraded since Windows was installed. You could try doing that then download and install a newer version from Microsoft.

And you could just continue using Chrome if you like the way it does things. Or as i posted earlier zap Firefox and install from scratch if you prefer that.

LION8TIGER · 13/07/13 - 02:58

chisches wrote: »

my partner did a system restore but this hasn't worked - every evening it wants to update (15 plus items each time). Any ideas?

Do the updates.
I had a little Google and some found that updating the graphics drivers cured the problem.

Hey there!

Quick Links

Web pages showing completely black how do I fix?

Comments