As reported at http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=83533; An absolutely positioned div with a negative zindex that is initially visible without scrolling doesn't have hover applied to it. ---------- <style> div { width: 50px; height: 50px; position: absolute; background-color: blue; z-index: -1; } div:hover { background-color:green; } </style> <div style="top: 200px;"></div> <div style="top: 400px;"></div> <div style="top: 600px;"></div> <div style="top: 800px;"></div> ------------ In the above testcase, any div that is initially offscreen (ie requiring scrolling) will correctly turn green on hover. The ones that are initially onscreen don't. Note you need to load this directly - pasting into something like jsfiddle.net does not repro the problem. Browsers Tested (MacOS): - WebKit Nightly r101106: BAD - Firefox 8.0 : OK - Opera 11.52: OK