Gobbledegook

[Guest]

All the description banners on windows are not in English but in squares
triangles dots ticks question marks etc etc. The text for my icons on my
desktop is tiny and almost unreadable. Windows are mis-shapen but none of my
display settings have changed at all. Any ideas. I have tried System
Restore many times but that won't work even in Safe Modeand I am stuck. I
don't want to disable System Restore cos if I do all my dates will disappear
and i will be stuck in this position for ever - I think HELP.

 

[David Candy]

Type in Start Run

sfc /scannow

sounds like a font has gone walkabout.

 

[Guest]

Tried that David but still the same problem - which begins to show its self
with Welcome when Windows is opening looking like this

|- c /// ) c. Then as described before other symbols take over from English
and windows and fonts are the wrong size on my desktop and in other windows.

 

[David Candy]

Type this in Start Run

cmd /k for %A in (%Windir%\fonts\*.*) do start "" /w "%A"

See what happens as each command is processed. You are looking for something out of the ordinary. Close each window opened and another will open (hold down alt and press F4). This is testing most fonts one by one. Only font files should be found. Don't worry about fonts with squares in them, it means they don't have english letters.

Also type in Start Run

cmd /k reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes" /v "MS Shell Dlg"

cmd /k reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes" /v "MS Shell Dlg 2"

Have you been playing about with foreign fonts. Nothing good can come with liason's with those sorts. Also post a screenshot. Note the part about making it smaller. Also you can trim a lot of it as well as we just need to see a small example of your screen. Like My Computer and it's text. Also if gibberish looks different to there post a small part of that but from an area that we can tell what it normally is - a part that everyone has like the start button.

Copying the Screen
Key Description
Prt Scn Copies the whole screen to the clipboard as a graphic. Use MS Paint to paste the image.
Depending on Prt Scn key settings on the Misc tab of a Dos program's properties, a Dos program can still print to printer with Prt Scn key.
Alt + Prt Scn Copies the active window to the clipboard as a graphic.

To capture a screen from a DVD or other hardware type playback, disable Overlays in Media Player's Tools menu - Options - Performance - Advanced. Media Player has its own similar feature for DVDs only (Ctrl + I) but is usually not available due to computer hardware issues and also content protection issues.

If sending the screenshot by email save it as a jpeg, gif, or png file before sending (in MS Paint, File - Save As then choose a format in Save As Type).

Run MS Paint

 

[Guest]

Don't know anything much about fonts but have you had a look in start >
control panel > display > appearance > advanced, only its got a font
selection option, and in mine it's greyed out but if you've got something
else showing there it might give you a clue as to what's going on.

Only other things I can think of is you haven't got one of the fancy change
windows everywhichway programs that give menue title font changing options,
or maybe one of the DIY windows theme maker programs or something like that
by any chance, if so maybe it's changed some info file that windows looks at
when booting up.

Maybe also try start > programs > accesories > system tools > system
information > tools and see if the file sugnature verification tool finds
anything peculiar. And of course there's always Dr Watson, never tried it but
if you switch him on and reboot maybe he'll see something, don't really know
what he can do though, as I said I've never tried to used him or seen him
even appear yet on anything I've ever had go wrong.

Don't know if you have the intial DOS type boot bit showing before the
windows startup screen appears, if so presumably from what you say the text
in that is ok.


Albert.

 

[Guest]

All the fonts appeared to be OK.
But upon opening Word I am now only given a choice of 5 fonts and one of
those is called Merriott (I think cos the type is so small) When using that
and typing the alphabet on my keyboard the figures appear exactly as they do
on my computer as described. I typed in Welcome and that appeared exactly as
it does when Windows is opening.

How can I send a copy of a Word document of the alphabet in that font
together with the normal alphabet in English to you?

 

[Guest]

I have just re-installed Office and all my fonts and sizes have returned and
the problem regarding the text on the welcome screen and that on the
description banner on windows has now been resolved.
Thanks for your help - may need to get back to you re shape and size of
windows later.
Gordon