I can has XKCD hover text?

June 4, 2010 1:30 PM

A small but annoying problem with hovering with my cursor in Firefox.

A few days ago, my cursor just stopped showing anything when I hover it over a link in Firefox (except an extremely small square box). Not link info, not alt text, nada. I can hover over the same link in Microsoft IE and it works fine. Same for items on the desktop, in folders, etc. It seems to be a Firefox issue. I'm using version 3.6.3. I figure I must have triggered some setting or another, but I'm at a loss to what and unable to Google up a solution. Please tell me of the simple solution I'm missing!

posted by Atreides to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

I had this problem once, and it turned out a setting had mysteriously changed. Go to about:config and make sure "browser.chrome.toolbar_tips" is set to "true."
posted by cloudburst at 1:44 PM on June 4, 2010

Response by poster: Unfortunately, mine is set to true. Drats.
posted by Atreides at 5:14 PM on June 4, 2010

I have exactly this problem too. So annoying!
posted by peacheater at 6:59 AM on June 5, 2010

Best answer: Are you using Google toolbar? See here. Good luck!
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 8:09 AM on June 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yay, that worked for me!
posted by peacheater at 9:04 AM on June 5, 2010

Response by poster: Re-installed the Google toolbar and still no luck. Were I an evil genius, this is the part where I start stalking back and forth muttering, "Curses!"

Thank you for the suggestions so far! (at least someone got a fix!)
posted by Atreides at 11:47 AM on June 5, 2010

Did you still have the problem in between uninstalling and reinstalling the toolbar? It was a while ago but I think the same thing happened to me. I knew it was the toolbar because when I got rid of it, the issue went away. But it came back when I reinstalled. Sorry I can't be more help than that.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 6:35 AM on June 6, 2010

Response by poster: This is strange, I swear I posted this morning or last night (when I marked your first reply best answer).

I ended up uninstalling the Google toolbar and the problem did go away. I haven't re-installed it, but then apparently, when I check add-ons, it gives me the option to uninstall it. I think it's an older version, as it now tells me it's not-compatible with the current version of Firefox.

Everything is pretty much working for me, so I'm going to take the philosophy - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Thanks for the help. You definitely hit the right problem area.
posted by Atreides at 7:34 AM on June 6, 2010

Ok, I guess I should mention that when I said that worked for me above, I didn't actually bother reinstalling the toolbar. So not sure if reinstalling the toolbar would still let me keep tooltips, but I haven't been using the toolbar at all so not going to test it now.
posted by peacheater at 3:05 PM on June 6, 2010