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I'm getting some weirdness on the messageboards and site generally today:
I'm not getting the lighter colours for OOC comments, or the shading-box thingy for quotes.
Many profile pictures are only half-loading, or just not coming up at all (with the name tag and little red 'X').
Whenever I hit the back arrow on my browser the format of the page changes to something bizzare.
Is this just me, or a more general issue?
Cheers,
ProfPotts
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So... just me then?
BTW I can see the OOC text in the normal pale blue in the preview screen, but not on the main threads...
If anyone can offer an explanation as to why this stuff may have suddenly messed up for me, that'd be great. Everything was fine one day, messed up the next, with no changes from my end as far as I can tell. I've since run the windows update I keep putting off, to see it that helped... but it didn't.
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Just normal 'Microsoft Windows XP' + 'Windows Internet Explorer', but like I wrote - fine one day, messed up the next.
The really strange thing is that it all looks okay when I preview something on the messageboards, but not normally; the really annoying thing is that hitting 'back' on the browser messes up the page format, so I have to go in again (via the ol' favourites) and find where I was... which is a nightmare when I'm trying to check people's character sheets mid-PbP update...
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Hmmm... I reset the ol' Internet Explorer to default settings, which seems to have cured the lack of OOC script (and 'quote' shading), although there's still a lot of avatar pics not loading in (until I right-click and 'show picture' on them), and hitting back on the browser still messes up the format... but I'm thinking it's a browser issue (especially since I checked the site from work and it looked fine).
So, are there recommended settings for viewing this site listed anywhere?
If you haven't tried it already, I'd like to suggest that you try clearing your browser's cache files. It sounds to me like the version of our CSS files and avatar images it has stored are broken.
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So far I've tried resetting IE, clearing the temp files (and everything else for that matter), freeing up hard disc space (just in case, although it wasn't anywhere near capacity), emptying the recycle bin, rebooting...
It's a little better, I guess - but some pictures still don't load without prompting, and the whole 'back button on the browser jumbles the format' thing is just... frustrating.
On the other hand, it's not just this site! So - good news for everyone else... bad news for me. :(
Maybe I will have to go Firefox, although changing the entire browser seems a little drastic when everything was working fine a couple of days ago... argh! Computers and cars - love 'em when they work, hate 'em when they don't... for no understandable reason! (I bet it'll turn out to be one check box on some menu I never knew existed or some other such IT industry invention designed to make all our heads explode!)
Anyway, thanks for the advice guys, I'll keep... well, banging my head against the wall probably, but you never know - that might just work!;)
Starting with the simplest stuff left first:
Try defragging your hard drive. I know, it doesn't sound like it would help - and it shouldn't. But sometimes that does the trick. If you are unfamiliar with this:
- My Computer > right click on the drive on the list > Properties > Tools > Defrag now.
((It might be slightly different, it has been too long since I messed with XP.))
If you haven't done this in the last week or two, it can take a LLOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGG time. I suggest setting it up to run while you sleep - assuming you do not shut down your computer overnight.
Run full scans with you anti-virus / anti-malware programs. These too can take a great deal of time depending on your computer.
If neither of these work, AND you have the install disks for Windows XP, you can try verifying the integrity of your system files.
- Open up a command prompt: Start > Accessories > Command Prompt
- Have the install disk in the optical drive of choice
- Type the following (without the quotes) "sfc /scannow" (notice the space between sfc, and /scannow)
- press Enter.
As with the others, this can take a severe amount of time if things are screwy. If your system is still pristine, it should be very quick.
If that fails... I have one other suggestion that might work. But I will hold off on that a while because it is a bit more drastic.