Posted on 09/06/2008 3:23:44 PM PDT by valkyry1
Computer problems. I just assembled a new machine and I cant get the browsers to recognize the coloring for background and text in FireFox or explorer.
Standby for sample screen capture
Need a bigger pic.
Yes I know, will try anther free hosting site.
Regards,
Is the check box checked that says “allow sites to override my text selections” or something to that effect?
Allow pages to choose their own colors is checked
Interesting... mine looks precisely like that, in IE, Firefox and in Safari.
Raises an interesting question for me: how is it supposed to look? I’e never known it any different...
I will swap over to the old machine and send a screen cap up for you.
In FF, when I uncheck the “Tools->Options->Content->Colors->Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above” box, FR looks like your screenshot. If it is checked, try unchecking and checking it again.
I’ve been having a similar problem with my browser. Every time I check my bank account online, the number in the “available balance” area looks entirely too small.
Whoah! That really *is* different. Now you’ve got me curious (thanks!) — I am going to check my settings now...
(Hmmmmmmm... I never thought to question it before.)
Gut tells me it’s probably a driver thing (checking drivers)
Well, well, well. (I’m running XP) — I run “Add Hardware” wizard, and after stepping thru it my “Video Controller (VGA Compatible)” and “SM Bus Controller” are both showing as “The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)”
I dunno about the SM Bus Controller, but the Video Controller being “Unknown” is bound to be problematic...
I’m running a Compaq, and because I do not like their default build I de-res’ed it and re-installed XP from the ground up. This tells me that Compaq probably had a driver that is specific to this machine that XP does not know about and cannot find.
I wonder if you are having a similar problem? What does your Control Panel say?
I would have to back over to the new machine, but I installed the drivers that came with the card. It is a new box I built.
An AMD dual core 3.0GHZ with 2 Gig of Ram, 150Gig SATA Hard Disk, CD-Rom writer, and 256MB video card all for $600!
I already had the OS etc
> An AMD dual core 3.0GHZ with 2 Gig of Ram, 150Gig SATA Hard Disk, CD-Rom writer, and 256MB video card all for $600!
Nice spec for $600 — I bet that thing screams!
> I already had the OS etc
What OS are you running?
XP Pro
I hung on to OS/2 as long as I could.
And I am no stranger to getting under the hood but Linux is to demanding, and there are not enough Apps for it.
So I am stuck with XP.
I quite like XP. UNIX is better-engineered by miles but I agree: not enough apps to justify the jump to Linux (yet). XP is the best Windows attempt yet.
My line-of-enquiry is going to start with this driver that my machine says is missing (Code 28) — it’s an obvious place for me to start.
Is it showing up that way on your machine?
Does you machine use onboard graphics or addon card graphics?
Either way you will need to determine the OEM of the motherboard and/or the graphic card to get the drivers.
The only message I have on this machine is for a USB controller, and I doubt that would have anything to do with my problem.
I just cleared the USB message.
It is fast.
The speed of my seems to DSL vary though and I wont pay for an entire cable package just to get fast internet.
> Does you machine use onboard graphics or addon card graphics?
No, it’s a laptop.
> Either way you will need to determine the OEM of the motherboard and/or the graphic card to get the drivers.
That’s simple enough. I wonder if it’s worthwhile?
> The only message I have on this machine is for a USB controller, and I doubt that would have anything to do with my problem.
If I had to stake my life on it, I’d say definitely not. Unrelated part of the architecture.
> I just cleared the USB message.
(Whew! Lucky for me!)
OK, so perhaps not a driver issue... might just be time for me to place a call to me ol’ mate “The Poison Elf” — if anyone knows where to look next, he will.
Stand by: it’s Sunday here and Himself-the-Poison-Elf may well be down at the rubbidy-dub pouring a few pints down his neck. Wouldn’t be the first time...
(grin!) even slow American Internet will be faster than what is available here in New Zealand, I reckon...
Now. As predicted, The Poison Elf was at his place of worship doing his libations. And he was full of the Spirit.
However, he had some sound advice: don’t take it as a “given” that it’s not a hardware problem. It could be. you have one machine that works the way you like, and one that doesn’t. Starting with the screen and working your way back, swap components and see if the problem moves. Use that to isolate where to look next.
(I should have thought of that — it’s obvious enough!)
Some sites get slower than others.
Sometimes the FR servers start to choke a little, and sometimes the entire internet will hang up some.
I think in some cases it is denial of service attacks from abroad.
Compare the FR account settings under the manage blocks pages between your 2 machines.
In our case there are two speeds: slow and glacial. It doesn’t bear thinking about, else I’d cry into my beer!
There is method in The Poison Elf’s madness, when you think it thru. He’s a lazy bugger at the best of times, and he’s starting with the easiest component to swap (the screen), then moving to the video card — that isolates-or-otherwise the hardware, which is the Easy Answer. Then moving to the drivers (first screen, then video card) as they are the next easiest to isolate.
Failing that, it’s a bug-hunt for some obscure setting or another...
I only have on monitor here (LCD flat screen) so thats not the problem.
I have never used the screen drivers on either machine. I might as well load them up on this machine.
I will check that out, thanks.
> I have never used the screen drivers on either machine. I might as well load them up on this machine.
Could be something bizarre like that.
Obvious question: Same OS level on both machines? As this is a new build, did you go get all of the Updates thru to SP 3? Your old machine will probably have them all if it has Automatic Update enabled...
This machine is on Win XP Pro at fixpak3.
The other Machine is a 2002 HP Pavilion with WIn XP Home at Fixpak2.
The FixPaks have been known to break ‘stuff’ and I always ran with minimum updates until on this machine.
The screen drivers added nothing for me.
So one thing that we have in common is that our machines are both running Fixpack 3.
It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that I failed to notice that the look-and-feel of the FRee Republic had changed between 2 and 3...
Hmmmm... curiouser and curiouser.
Have you exchanged the video cards between machines?
//Have you exchanged the video cards between machines?//
No I wont go that far for this problem.
To fix this I think we would have to go into the registry somewhere.
> To fix this I think we would have to go into the registry somewhere.
It goes without saying to back up your registry unless you want to do a re-install if things go bung...
...best of luck with that: I’ll confer with The Poison Elf again to see if he has any suggestions on where in the Registry to look. If he isn’t too far into his cups he might know (Crikey! It’s only 13h11 Sunday afternoon — so three sheets to the wind would be an accomplishment even for The Poison Elf. Still, it’s not impossible...)
I’d rather claw out my eyes than meddle with the Registry — swapping the video card is about as technical as I’d want to go for this problem. As I’m running a laptop with the video built-in to the motherboard, I don’t have that option so probably I’ll have to live with it the way it is...
...unless The Poison Elf has something brilliant to offer. I’ll ask him now.
Well, as I thought, he was well into his cups. Promised he’d look into the registry thing for me later.
I’ll check with him Monday Evening (Auckland time)
Meanwhile, good luck, and sorry I could’t be of more help.
*DieHard*
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