Black boxes appear in my browser

[kulmage]

Hello,

Kinda new Mac user here in need of advice and would appreciate any help.

A week ago I started to get problems when using Youtube in Chrome, the video locks and says there is a problem and large black boxes appear over the screen almost covering everything making it impossible to read or view any site. The comment section and the other videos is blank. If I scroll or switch tab to some random homepage the problems occur there as well so it’s not only related to streaming videos. Problems also appear when switching to Safari and even when I use a program like Spotify. But watching a movie in VLC works fine.

There seems to be some kind of flash or overheating problem ?I don’t know where to troubleshoot and how to fix it. Can someone please help?

My specs are Macbook Air 13inch, early 2014 and OS X Version 10.9.5. The 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and RAM 4 GB.

Best regards and thanks in advance!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Are all of the OS X updates installed and current?
-Do you have Adobe Flash installed and is it up to date?
-Do you have any third-party utilities like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, etc. installed?
-Do you have any antivirus software installed?

C

 

[kulmage]

Cheers!

-I have OS X Mavericks version 10.9.5. Should I update to OS X El capitan? Should I backup my computer before installing the update? I've heard that the computer might get slower by a new version, is this true or should you always keep it up do date?
-I don't have Adobe Flash installed, should I install it?
-No third-party utilizer
-I have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, which did not find anything.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK...thanks for the additional information.

-You should upgrade to El Capitan at some point, as you will find more incompatibilities as the years go by.
-Yes, you should always have a current Time Machine or other backup of your data. It's not a question of if, but when a hardware failure will occur. And, it is always recommended before performing a major OS upgrade.
-I do not have Adobe Flash installed on any of my Macs. It is slowing being phased out, and has been known to cause more issues that it is worth. If you need to visit a site that requires it, use Google Chrome as you have been, as it has a version of Flash built-in.
-Good - apps like MacKeeper and CleanMyMac are notorious for causing all sorts of problems.
-Good that you run/ran Malwarebytes - it's the best utility of its kind.

As to the issue, make sure that Google Chrome is as up to date as it can be. Check to see what extensions are installed in Chrome, and let us know. Also, you could try to see if the issue persists in Safari, or downloading and installing Firefox.

C