Why would actual displayed color differ from the hex color in inspector (in Chrome)?

Question

Sometimes Chrome will draw a specific div using an incorrect color for a second or two while the rest of the page renders. The color then (very visibly) changes to the correct value.

If I stop loading (hit Esc) early enough I can get the incorrect color to stick around, but the inspector lies about its hex value, showing the (correct) hex color from the css instead. System ColorPicker shows the actual value. This color does not appear to be referenced anywhere in the source.

This is in Chrome 22.0.1229.79 beta on OS X, with an external monitor (unclear if reproducible without one). I understand that profiles related to 3rd party monitors can substantially affect color representation, but the hex values should stay the same, no?

Brisbane

While posting this, I discovered a further bizarre behavior, which makes me think this is a chrome + external monitor bug, but feel free to correct me: youtube.com/watch?v=FVB83tY2yuo (color of the div changes to the "wrong" color when dragged near the screenshot!) – Brisbane

Colors have been displaying slightly wrong in Chrome since it updated to version 22 on my Windows 7 system. I also noted that they don't match the color reported in the inspector. I can't find anyone else complaining about it which is weird. I don't have an external monitor hooked up. – Rumpf

Flash appears to fix it. I noticed off colors in Chrome 24.0.1312.52 under Mac OS 10.6.8 showing pages on an external monitor. DigitalColor Meter would show hex values differing from the CSS and changing depending on which color profile was selected for the monitor. Then I happened to try it on w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp. The colors there were all pristine! WTF‽ On a hunch, I configured the Flash plugin to require a click. Now the colors were wrong on the w3schools page as well — until I clicked one of the Flash ads! – Ssw