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Corrupt and missing images in IE, Firefox and throughout the OS
I had a customer bring in their XP Home OEM machine today due to some issues with windows updates and a simple shutdown issue. I was able to resolve them, and then went to open a webpage in IE. Everything was garbled and images are not displaying properly. Backgroud colours are missing, too. I tried re-registering the IE DLLs, to no avail. I then installed and tried Firefox and it was the same thing!
I tried to run sfc /scannow but it closed after a few minutes. I noticed a few other wonky things as well, so I decided to do a repair install, and it's still not working. I can still download files fine, and network browsing is not a problem, so I don't suspect a networking issue. I have even tried using the wireless NIC (it's a laptop) to no avail.
Any ideas?
Here's a screenshot of Firefox displaying microsoft.com. Notice the missing background and style elements:
Hello ClickRight. Based on that screenshot and your thread it seems to me as though the computer may have some of the backround colors disabled. I am not a Firefox user so I am not really sure how you can check to see if the colors are disabled in Firefox, but I know what you can check to see if the colors in Internet Explorer are disabled. First open up Internet Explorer and go to Tools, then Internet Options. Under the General tab, click colors and ensure the Use Windows Colors checkbox is checked. If that setting is fine then under the General tab click accessibility. Ensure that Ignore colors specified on webpages is unchecked. If that setting is fine then click on the advanced tab, and scroll down to Multimedia and ensure all of the options in that categorie are checked. Then after all that is done restart Internet Explorer and see if the backround color of Microsoft.com is visible. I am sorry that I can't tell you what to check in Firefox because I have never used it. But you can try the same approach as in IE and look for any color settings in Firefox. Also you should install the latest version of Flash Player if you haven't done so already. That could also be the problem. You can get the latest version of Flash Player here. http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/downl...ShockwaveFlash I am also curious what version of Internet Explorer and Firefox is installed on the machine? One last thing you can try if all else fails, try updating the video cards drivers to the most recent version available. Let me know if these suggesstions helped at all. Thanks!
Hello ClickRight. Based on that screenshot and your thread it seems to me as though the computer may have some of the backround colors disabled. I am not a Firefox user so I am not really sure how you can check to see if the colors are disabled in Firefox, but I know what you can check to see if the colors in Internet Explorer are disabled. First open up Internet Explorer and go to Tools, then Internet Options. Under the General tab, click colors and ensure the Use Windows Colors checkbox is checked. If that setting is fine then under the General tab click accessibility. Ensure that Ignore colors specified on webpages is unchecked. If that setting is fine then click on the advanced tab, and scroll down to Multimedia and ensure all of the options in that categorie are checked. Then after all that is done restart Internet Explorer and see if the backround color of Microsoft.com is visible. I am sorry that I can't tell you what to check in Firefox because I have never used it. But you can try the same approach as in IE and look for any color settings in Firefox. Also you should install the latest version of Flash Player if you haven't done so already. That could also be the problem. You can get the latest version of Flash Player here. http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/downl...ShockwaveFlash I am also curious what version of Internet Explorer and Firefox is installed on the machine? One last thing you can try if all else fails, try updating the video cards drivers to the most recent version available. Let me know if these suggesstions helped at all. Thanks!
Thanks, Evan Omo.
I have verified that those settings are correct. It's running IE 7 and Firefox 2.0.0.4, but it seems that the whole system is affected: Here's a screenshot of the security centre: http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4857/securitybr7.jpg
There's must be a problem deep in the system somewhere, probably in the registry, but I just can't track it down. I'm going to try a few more things, and any more suggestions that come in, then I'm probably going to be forced to toast the machine. Can't spend too long on a single problem unfortunately.
Hi again ClickRight. Well now based on the screenshot of the Security Center the only option that I can think of that would cause this would be that the colors are on medium 16-bit or low 8-bit. Rght click on the desktop and go to properties. Then click on advanced. Ensure that the color setting is set to Hightest 32-bit. If that fails to solve the issue the last option would be to upgrade to the latest graphics drivers to see if that cures the problem. On some of the computers that I have worked on, I have seen computers with corrupted graphics and strange colors. When I update to the latest graphics driver it will usually resolve the issue. So see if that works and if it doesn't then I am all out of ideas. Good Luck with your issue. If worst comes to worst you can do a repair install if necessary.
Before you resort to "toasting" the computer, please consider giving jv16 Power Tools a shot. At least a couple of the Windows BBS staff members here (PeteC and charlesvar) use those utilities (though I don't know to what extent).
jv16PT includes a registry cleaner that lets you look at what it wants to repair/remove before you give it the go-ahead. I have used the jv16PT registry cleaner on several occasions (even the "agressive" mode) without any serious consequences. You'll need to have an open Internet connection the first time you run the registry cleaning tool because it will want to update its "internal file cache" from jv16PT's online database (I assume to make the cleaning as safe as possible).
Since you're considering a drastic fresh install, the jv16PT option might be worth a shot immediately before that last resort "toasting" decision.
Hi again ClickRight. Well now based on the screenshot of the Security Center the only option that I can think of that would cause this would be that the colors are on medium 16-bit or low 8-bit. Rght click on the desktop and go to properties. Then click on advanced. Ensure that the color setting is set to Hightest 32-bit. If that fails to solve the issue the last option would be to upgrade to the latest graphics drivers to see if that cures the problem. On some of the computers that I have worked on, I have seen computers with corrupted graphics and strange colors. When I update to the latest graphics driver it will usually resolve the issue. So see if that works and if it doesn't then I am all out of ideas. Good Luck with your issue. If worst comes to worst you can do a repair install if necessary.
This is a real stumper. Checked the graphics drivers and options already. Safe mode does the same thing. The repair install didn't work either, so I guess it's on to a full wipe.
Before you resort to "toasting" the computer, please consider giving jv16 Power Tools a shot. At least a couple of the Windows BBS staff members here (PeteC and charlesvar) use those utilities (though I don't know to what extent).
jv16PT includes a registry cleaner that lets you look at what it wants to repair/remove before you give it the go-ahead. I have used the jv16PT registry cleaner on several occasions (even the "agressive" mode) without any serious consequences. You'll need to have an open Internet connection the first time you run the registry cleaning tool because it will want to update its "internal file cache" from jv16PT's online database (I assume to make the cleaning as safe as possible).
Since you're considering a drastic fresh install, the jv16PT option might be worth a shot immediately before that last resort "toasting" decision.
Thanks for the welcome! A registry cleaner actually popped into mind earlier today but I got distracted. I haven't used jv16 in ages, as I was using Wise Registry Cleaner. I'll give it a shot.
If you don't want to download the entire Macecraft jv16PT package, Macecraft apparently has a stand-alone registry cleaner called RegSupreme that I think might meet your needs.
I have never used the stand-alone application but the screen shots look like the tool that is included with jv16Pt.
Part of the description might be cause for concern. The "Automatic repair of found problems" feature description item makes me wonder if the stand-alone application will let you investigate what the utility wants to repair before it proceeds with its cleaning.
EDIT: I was typing this message while you posted. I'm leaving it as is.
I just opened my jv16PT Registry Cleaner and it appears you will have more options using that utility instead of the RegSupreme stand-alone app (though I would need to download RegSupreme to really compare).
Since you're already familiar with jv16PT, I'd be inclined to suggest you use jv16PT's registry cleaner (newest version of jv16PT, of course ).
Did you have jv16PT's registry Cleaner "Fix" or "Remove" after selecting all and having it proceed? If I recall correctly, I have always used the automatically "Remove" option. That has produced a few minor glitches with some of my existing software but nothing that a reinstall wouldn't fix (as far as I know).
If you used the automatix "Fix" option instead of "Remove", is there a chance you can restore your backup that jv16 made, reboot, and then use the "Remove" option?
I don't know how jv16PT's Registry Cleaner decides what to do when "fixing". Haven't really paid close attention to it.
I have used another repair tool (Symantec/Norton's WinDoctor) as well. Whenever I use WinDoctor, I ALWAYS manually step through the items WinDoctor finds and I often decide to "delete" rather than WinDoctor's desire to "repair" because it appears to me WinDoctor is capable of making some bad decisions (wanting to point to very old backups of programs I had long ago removed, for example).
Anyway, if you're already started with a fresh install, then this message is moot. I hope this gets to you in time.
I know mailman, it made me shudder too! I did indeed use the delete feature in jv12PT. I alto tried running through all of the related dll registration with Dial-a-Fix too with no avail. It's a shame I had to go thru with the new install, but I believe it was my only option at this point, without spending hours tracking down the issue.
All is working well now anyways Thanks for the help guys.
I am glad you got your issue sorted out. Sometimes a reinstall of Windows is the last option to repair a damaged OS unfortunatly. Well I hope the colors don't go all whacky on you again.
First open up Internet Explorer and go to Tools, then Internet Options. Under the General tab, click colors and ensure the Use Windows Colors checkbox is checked. If that setting is fine then under the General tab click accessibility. Ensure that Ignore colors specified on webpages is unchecked. If that setting is fine then click on the advanced tab, and scroll down to Multimedia and ensure all of the options in that categorie are checked. Then after all that is done restart Internet Explorer and see if the backround color of Microsoft.com is visible. I am sorry that I can't tell you what to check in Firefox because I have never used it. But you can try the same approach as in IE and look for any color settings in Firefox. Also you should install the latest version of Flash Player if you haven't done so already. That could also be the problem. You can get the latest version of Flash Player here. 
Good Luck with your issue. If worst comes to worst you can do a repair install if necessary.
