IE8 and Firefox display problem

[MalcolmWalker]

Laptop computer operating system Windows 7 Home Premium upgraded from Windows Vista

I think my problem with IE8 and Firefox, my default browser, is Windows 7 related only because I have exhausted implementing all that I can find about correcting a wrong display, particularly in Firefox. I have checked that the relevant settings in Internet Options are correct and I have also checked the Display Properties.

I have uninstalled Firefox completely and installed again from a fresh download of the Firefox installation file with no change to the display of any site in this browser. As a last resort I downloaded the Safari and the Google Chrome browsers. The installation of Safari aborted with an error message:
Quote
Safari Installer Completed
The installer encountered errors before Safari could be configured.
Your system has not been modified. To retry these operations at a later time, please run the installer again.
Click Finish to exit the installer. Finish
Unquote
Running the installation file again results in the same error.

However Chrome installed successfully and the display of all sites I have viewed with it is as expected. Please see the screen shots to view the display in IE8 and Firefox compared to a screen shot in Google Chrome. The IE8 display of this site is very similar to that in Firefox.

Any help to rectify this deficiency will be much appreciated.

Malcolm

[HansV]

I don't have a solution for you, but the problem is not intrinsic to Windows 7. I visited the site using Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6.3 on Windows 7 Home Premium, and it looked like your Chrome screenshot in both browsers.

I get the effect that you see in IE8 if I select Tools | Internet Options..., click Accessibility and tick the check box 'Ignore colors specified on web pages', and in Firefox if I select Tools | Options..., activate the Content tab, click Colors..., and clear the check box 'Allow pages to choose their colors, instead of my selections above'.

[Bigaldoc]

I'm not sure where to tell you to look in the Fx settings, but when I go to that web page with Fx I get a screen that looks just like your second attachment. Could it be "allowing the web page to set colors" which I think is somewhere in the Fx settings (admitting I haven't yet looked).

[MalcolmWalker]

Hans and Al - thank you for your responses.

I can confirm that all the relevant settings in both browsers are correct and I have double and treble checked them. Hence my assumption that the problem is not browser related. Yet Google Chrome is either not affected or is able to ignore whatever the error or setting that is causing the problem in IE8 and FF.

Using the Web Developers add-on in FF disabling all CSS styles changes the text and links to the default font Times New Roman and the page is also displayed with minimum formatting. Yet I believe the missing elements are also CSS styles. In which case, if I am right, something is blocking some of the CSS from the display of a page.

Malcolm

[HansV]

Does it make a difference if you right-click the shortcut to Internet Explorer or Firefox and select Run as Administrator from the popup menu?

[Charlotte]

Do you have any accessibility features turned on, particularly the high contrast settings? If so, try an Alt + Left Shift + PrtScrn and see what happens. That toggles accessibility features. I've found that some pages drop elements when accessibility features are on. Very inconvenient when the elements are the buttons you need to sign in or navigate!

[HansV]

Do you have any accessibility features turned on, particularly the high contrast settings?

That thought occurred to me too, but from Malcolm's screenshots I get the impression that high contrast has not been turned on. The title bar of the browser windows looks normal - it's not the black-and-white version you get with a high contrast color scheme.

[MalcolmWalker]

Does it make a difference if you right-click the shortcut to Internet Explorer or Firefox and select Run as Administrator from the popup menu?

Regrettably there is no difference in both browsers.

[MalcolmWalker]

Do you have any accessibility features turned on, particularly the high contrast settings? If so, try an Alt + Left Shift + PrtScrn and see what happens. That toggles accessibility features. I've found that some pages drop elements when accessibility features are on. Very inconvenient when the elements are the buttons you need to sign in or navigate!

In Firefox a dialogue box appears asking:
Quote
Do you want to turn on High Contrast?
End quote

to which I have selected `No'.

[HansV]

It's very strange that Internet Explorer and Firefox exhibit the same problem, but Chrome doesn't. If it's not the accessibility options in Windows or those of the browser, nor a permissions problem, I'm out of ideas. I'd either live with it (and use Chrome), or reinstall Windows 7 from scratch.

[MalcolmWalker]

It's very strange that Internet Explorer and Firefox exhibit the same problem, but Chrome doesn't. If it's not the accessibility options in Windows or those of the browser, nor a permissions problem, I'm out of ideas. I'd either live with it (and use Chrome), or reinstall Windows 7 from scratch.

Like you I am out of ideas but I'm going to try a repair of Windows 7 before reinstalling from scratch. I don't use the laptop frequently so I am unable to relate any particular event to the wrong display becoming apparent.

Thank you and the other contributors to this thread for your interest and suggestions. I will update the thread when normal service resumes!

Malcolm

[Bigaldoc]

How about trying a new Firefox profile to see if the problem is still there? You can always delete it if it doesn't help.

[MalcolmWalker]

How about trying a new Firefox profile to see if the problem is still there? You can always delete it if it doesn't help.

Creating a new profile is one of the suggestions listed in the relevant pages in the Mozilla `Need Help with Firefox? site'. As with all the other suggestions from that source creating a new profile had no effect on the behaviour of Firefox in displaying Web pages. It is for this reason that I came to the conclusion that the behaviour is Windows rather than browser related. I think the next step is to repair Windows or if that fails, as Hans suggested, make a fresh install of Windows.

Nevertheless thank you for your continued interest. It is appreciated very much indeed.

Malcolm

[MalcolmWalker]

Thank you and the other contributors to this thread for your interest and suggestions. I will update the thread when normal service resumes!Malcolm

The problem is resolved! In part it was Windows 7 related and the other part was Malcolm Walker related!

On both of my computers the desktop (o/s Windows 7 Professional) and the laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) I had altered the Desktop appearance through the Personalize tool to a plain Teal background. (I find the Windows 7 default theme tacky.)

On the desktop computer this change made no difference as to how IE8 and FF displayed Web pages. But on the laptop the change produced the display shown in my original post. Reverting to the Windows 7 default theme on the laptop has corrected the misbehaviour.

Why the difference in behaviour I do not know (yet) but at the least I now know why.

Again please to all who responded my sincere thanks.

Malcolm

[HansV]

That's weird! But thanks for posting the 'solution'!