Weird black triangular graphics disruption - ad related?

[JWSpaceMan]

For a while (well over a month) about half the time I visit the site, there is a terrible graphics disruption that renders it unusable.

There is a screen cap below of what I'm seeing -- it is kind of a black triangular artifact that mutates around frequently.

I can't be the only one seeing this, surely ... maybe it has been discussed, but I didn't see another thread.

It seems to occur when certain types of ads are being served.

I'm using Safari.

Any thoughts? Anyone else getting that? Already discussed?

 

[arn]

this doesn't look like a normal css/html issue. More of a graphics issue?

- We have rewritten our entire HTML/CSS/JS front end and that will be deployed in the next couple of weeks. So it probably isn't worth digging too deep into.
- Let me try turning your ads off and let me know if it stops happening.

arn

 

[JWSpaceMan]

this doesn't look like a normal css/html issue. More of a graphics issue?

- We have rewritten our entire HTML/CSS/JS front end and that will be deployed in the next couple of weeks. So it probably isn't worth digging too deep into.
- Let me try turning your ads off and let me know if it stops happening.

arn

Thanks for the reply. Graphics card is what I thought at first ... I have several Macs, though, and I'm pretty sure it has happened on multiple machines (couldn't swear to that -- for sure it occurs on my 2012 iMac at home) starting around the same time. One other related artifact ... when this happens text is also very "scattered", as if each letter has been pasted in a semi-random position by an old timey typewriter.

My next guess was that a particular type of ad was "breaking out" of its html container and corrupting the rendering -- this seemed more likely if large amounts of javascript are used for dynamic page generation.

But, it is hard to believe that you wouldn't have already been barraged for a month with solid complaints if the problem was really on your end. Still, if anyone else has seen this, that would be nice to know ...

Interesting about your new front end - sounds good!

 

[arn]

I think we've heard of it intermittently. but certainly not regularly.

 

[SlyBriFry]

I have been having the same problem for well over a month now.

 

[arn]

With the new design I’m hoping this got fixed.

 

[JWSpaceMan]

Hi Arn --

Yes, it would appear so, Thanks!

Should it return intermittently, I'll let you know.

But, I think you got it. Thanks!

 

[JWSpaceMan]

Hi Arn --

Here's a strange one for you. The black triangles haven't come back, but article text is getting scrambled.

Back when the black triangle issue was presenting, this text scrambling was also sometimes happening (as noted in my second Feb 3 post), but it was the less dominant issue.

This is happening on my '12 iMac. On closer review, it doesn't seem that the same problems surface on my newer model MBPro.

Cheers -- JW

 

[arn]

huh. I have no idea. no other sites are having problems?

 

[JWSpaceMan]

Nope, I don't think so - just MR.

 

[arn]

Apparently this is iMac specific issue?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1243589723819520007

 

[JWSpaceMan]

Hi Arn -- Very interesting ... the Nvidia GPU.

Incidentally, a couple of updates. The black triangles did come back for me recently/intermittently on MR ... I was going to post another screen shot, but I couldn't access the forums at the time due to the graphics disruption.

Also, I did see this come up on one other site ... not a place I usually visit, but was researching some topic or other. I wish I had saved the URL for you, but unfortunately did not.

With respect to the letter shuffling, it seemed a bit of a clue that sidebar text was not affected, but article text was ... maybe different javascript or style sheet implementations?

Anyway, I know you've got more important things to deal with, but I appreciate the update!

 

[eRondeau]

+1 here. Appears intermittently using both Safari and Safari Technology Preview. iMac i7 fully up-to-date on everything. I suspect it may be related to an ad blocker? I use Wipr. But I see exactly the same thing as the screen shots. Bizarre.
EDIT: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX w/ 1GB VRAM.

 

[JWSpaceMan]

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 512 MB here on my iMac 2012.

I don't use any ad blockers -- I think that part is probably unrelated.

 

[MacAppleNZ]

No Ad blocker installed, but having same issue too with MR.
Suspect graphics card, just showing it's age.

27" iMac late 2012
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB

PS. Newer devices all good.

 

[arn]

as best as I can tell, it's an iMac-specific issue, so not sure if we can do anything about it.

 

[highground]

This seems to be happening for me only in Safari. I don't remember Firefox ever doing it.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4 GB

 

[neilg]

This has been happening to me - Safari iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2 GB
I find if I go to the MacRumors Forum first (via an old link) then use the Home Page link at the top of the page the problem goes away.

 

[jive turkey]

This has been happening to me - Safari iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2 GB
I find if I go to the MacRumors Forum first (via an old link) then use the Home Page link at the top of the page the problem goes away.

This happens to me on multiple websites that I frequently visit, but it is worse on MR and ESPN. It finally got irritating enough that I've been using Firefox for the last month. But like has been theorized, it only happens on my iMac, which is the same as yours except the processor is a 3.4 GHz i5.

 

[highground]

This happens to me on multiple websites that I frequently visit, but it is worse on MR and ESPN. It finally got irritating enough that I've been using Firefox for the last month. But like has been theorized, it only happens on my iMac, which is the same as yours except the processor is a 3.4 GHz i5.

Yeah, I just switch to Firefox as well. So weird. If it ever gets solved, extremely unlikely unless by accident, I'd love to know what the hell it was.

 

[highground]

I may have found a workaround for this one. I begin with MacRumors in the forum section (my shortcut points to https://forums.macrumors.com/whats-new/posts/477183/), and then from there I click "Front Page." Hasn't gone berserk for me yet.

 

[jive turkey]

Well going to the forum page first didn't help me. In fact, things are getting worse. This is at least a third of all websites I visit now, most of which I didn't have problems with before. Thankfully DuckDuckGo works but as you can see, even Google is unusable now. And quitting and restarting the app no longer is fixing it.

I am having nothing but trouble with the stock apps these days.

 

[Don Tomato]

Hi,

it's not an iMac issue, same issue with a MacBook Pro 15" 2012, Nvidia GeForce GT 650M
- it only happens when viewing MacRumors
- and only with Safari
since upgrading to Catalina I think...

 

[SlyBriFry]

I included a video of it occurring for your viewing pleasure.

 

[arn]

I'm hopeful Safari 14 might fix this for some. Not sure if the computers affected can run Big Sur