missing background color & some graphics after XP reinstall

[Robert]

I had to reformat hardrive yesterday and reinstall Windows XP with original
manufacturers CD that came with computer. Once done, I opened browser (IE6)
and noticed that pages were not in proportion to my screen size settings and
there was no background color and some missing graphics. I then updated to
IE7 and the sizing issue was rectified, but still no background color and
missing graphics. I then downloaded Mozilla Firefox to try a different
browser, problem still persists. I,ve also noticed missing colors & graphics
in my Windows Live products and Media Player too. I,ve run several
maintenance utilities including registry scan and everything comes out clean.
I,m baffled & looking for suggestions.

 

[Big Al]

I had to reformat hardrive yesterday and reinstall Windows XP with original
manufacturers CD that came with computer. Once done, I opened browser (IE6)
and noticed that pages were not in proportion to my screen size settings and
there was no background color and some missing graphics. I then updated to
IE7 and the sizing issue was rectified, but still no background color and
missing graphics. I then downloaded Mozilla Firefox to try a different
browser, problem still persists. I,ve also noticed missing colors & graphics
in my Windows Live products and Media Player too. I,ve run several
maintenance utilities including registry scan and everything comes out clean.
I,m baffled & looking for suggestions.

Video card driver up to date?

 

[Robert]

I ran driver update from device manager and relaoded drivers from
installation CD, still no change. I then downloaded & installed most recent
updates for my video card direct from Nvidia,s website. Problem still
persists!!!! Seems like a 'Windows' problem, but I,m not saavy enough to know
for sure.

 

[Big Al]

I ran driver update from device manager and relaoded drivers from
installation CD, still no change. I then downloaded & installed most recent
updates for my video card direct from Nvidia,s website. Problem still
persists!!!! Seems like a 'Windows' problem, but I,m not saavy enough to know
for sure.

Windows XP out of the box, especially with all the updates is not that
buggy. I know there are a lot of messages about how a reload is buggy,
but frankly I've reloaded 3 PC's with XP CD's and with OEM CD's about 20
times. And never have I had a video, or feature problem. 99% of my
errors is from loading buggy applications I like but maybe should not
load, or making adjustments to the settings as I don't like all of
Microsoft's ideas. But out of the box it works great for me.

I would have pointed to the drivers. Have you tried changing the
refresh rate on the video card? downgrading the resolution? change to 8
bit color? I bought a new LCD one year and found vertical stripes,
like missing pixels on the screen. The vendor told me to change to
75hz (or was it 70?) and that fixed the display.
I'd try loading a generic driver, low res / high res, just screw with it
for a bit if you think you can chance it. Screwing around is a good
way to mess things up even more however.

Good luck. Sorry I can't do more than sympathize.

 

[gerryf]

I don't think this is a driver issue, but corrupt or not loaded
libraries...all the graphic elements in windows -- the things that make up
the "window" shapes like the X at the top right corner, the dialogue boxes,
the bands and bars are loaded into basic windows files (for example, many
icons are in moreicons.dll)

It sounds to me that you had a bad windows install

I would try a windows repair in which you reinstall windows over itself

 

[gerryf]

In other words

315341 - How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation or Repair) of
Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

 

[Robert]

You were right gerry. When I did the reformat 2 days ago I chose the 'quick'
option for reinstall and didn,t get a clean install. Did it all over again
yesterday (the long way) and everything is kosher again. Many thanks