SillyDog701

[gaia1muse]

(I haven't updated -- because I was happy with IE 6 and wasn't with 7) But there's this weird phenomenon -- on some pages underneath/over certain sections of type is a "black blob" which ends up "blobbing" out the type-- I can no longer read it.. It also happens in Google maps -- where every time a pushpin description comes up there is a huge blackblob shadow underneath it.

I figured it was in settings somewhere but nothing seems to take it away.....

At first I thought it might be somebody designing a page with a program that just doesn't fit with i.e.6 -- but now it seems there's a lot of pages I have doing this...

any ideas? I've been stumped for about a year....

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

[PaulD]

Is there a pattern of repetition? That is, always the same letter(s)/word(s)/section(s) on a given page, every time you bring up that page? How big are the blobs? On Google maps, I see a 'perspective' (at an angle) shadow of the descriptive 'balloon', the shadow is 'south-east' of the balloon. And the shadow of the push-pin is 'north-east', extending from the pin point. Does this match what you are seeing?

What type of display do you have: LCD, CRT, ??? How old is the display? Do you have any problem with the text in any other program?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.8) Gecko/2009032609 Firefox/3.0.8

[gaia1muse]

Thanks for your reply --
The computer is a triple of years old -- an LCD screen display. The problem doesn't happen anywhere but on web pages--it would be best if you can see it -- but that means I'd have to "attach" a pix -- is there anyway I could attach a screenshot in here? I don't have a URL or webpage....[/img]

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

[PaulD]

I have a slight suspicion that the problem is in the display itself. Try making a screen shot, then open it in Paint or some other program and see what it looks like. Also see if you can adjust the display brightness and contrast settings. Some display adapters also permit more detailed tweaking.

If the above isn't the answer, then it would be helpful to have answers to my questions. We're looking for patterns and commonalities.

See this site's FAQ's, specifically here, for image info. There are a number of free photo-posting places on the internet; you may have to register.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.8) Gecko/2009032609 Firefox/3.0.8

[gaia1muse]

"Is there a pattern of repetition? That is, always the same letter(s)/word(s)/section(s) on a given page, every time you bring up that page? How big are the blobs? On Google maps, I see a 'perspective' (at an angle) shadow of the descriptive 'balloon', the shadow is 'south-east' of the balloon. And the shadow of the push-pin is 'north-east', extending from the pin point. Does this match what you are seeing?

What type of display do you have: LCD, CRT, ??? How old is the display? Do you have any problem with the text in any other program"

Two patterns -- underneath type on some web pages and on maps. The google issue is somewhat confusing as I know there is meant to be a shadow -- but it's off in that it's jagged and looks like a mistake as opposed to a shadow. So best not to use that example.


I've copied it to paint in the past and just did it again to check -- looks exactly as it does on the web page.


There is an intuitive part of me that says this is the video card -- ATI -- but fiddling with that hasn't helped either...checked for updates, reinstalled it, etc.

Are you by any chance a Facebook member? I could create a group and post the pix and send you the link....

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

[PaulD]

Facebook? No, nor any other social site either.
Is there any chance you could temporarily connect a different monitor?
Your problem appears in IE. Can you test with another browser? (Hint: Firefox installs in less than a minute).

Your intuition on the video adapter may be correct. Three things to test:
- Change your display settings:
-- (24 bit / 32 bit) aka (high color / true color); and resolution - 800 x 600, etc.
- Control Panel > Display > (tab) Settings > (button) Advanced > (tab) Troubleshoot > Hardware Acceleration (your path may be different)
- Control Panel > System > (tab) Advanced > (Performance) Settings > (tab) Visual Effects

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.8) Gecko/2009032609 Firefox/3.0.8

[gaia1muse]

Paul -- Thanks for prompting me to recheck some things. I had done this once before -- checked it on Firefox -- but had the same problem. But I recently reinstalled Firefox -- and it's not a problem on Firefox anymore.

Then as an added mystery I checked a website where most of the type is "blacked out" and it said it will not display properly on IE - which it doesn't. But it's fine on Firefox.

Is it possible that google maps is no longer designing for IE? And now I'm wondering whether it's possibly an IE6 problem...

Firefox doesn't position or size well on my laptop which is why I stuck with IE -- I spent a lot of time zooming in and out of pages on Firefox -- guess if I want to stick with IE I'll have to upgrade to 7 or 8 to see if they've fixed the issue....

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

[PaulD]

I also have IE 6 - 6.0.2800.2190.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254 (whatever the last part may mean).

What is the site that is mostly blacked out on IE?

A quick comparison of http://maps.google.com/ shows no difference between the two (IE 6 and FF 3). Is it the map or the satellite view (or both) on which you see the problem? Can you supply some addresses of other sites that I can compare with?

Which release of FF were you having a problem with? And what display settings do you have?

Is it likely that some part of IE is corrupted on your machine? Earlier you said that this has been occurring for about a year. Was the onset sudden, or gradual?

As an aside, there is a site that will check page coding. I've been surprised sometimes at the number of errors (non-standard code) that exist on sites.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.8) Gecko/2009032609 Firefox/3.0.8