How square!

[marquitico]

Upon opening my Windows Help file (something I don't do a lot, so I don't know when this issue actually began), I have discovered an oddity. No matter which of the three tabs I click (Contents, Index, Search), the listing of topics that appears beneath simply displays a bunch of squares. It's as though it were trying to display words for which it didn't have the appropriate character set. And this phenomenon is not restricted to the Windows Help.?? My MSN Messenger, for example, is displaying some boxes here and there, instead of words, as well.

I have not changed languages or regional settings or anything. I DO change desktop themes from time to time, which will occasionally change the default font, but changing it back to Windows default desktop does not resolve the issue. Anyone run into anything like this?

Windows98 SE, American English, nothing fancy.
IE 6.0 with SP1
AMD Athlon 1.1 Gig

Anything else you need to know about my system to help me? Thanks in advance.

Mark
(marquitico)

 

[TekTippy4U]

Boot into DOS (C:\>);
(type each line below exactly - spaces too -, and hit Enter key after each line)
CD WINDOWS
ATTRIB -h shelliconcache
DEL shelliconcache
(answer Y for yes)
ATTRIB -h ttfcache
DEL ttfcache
DEL WIN386.swp
CD\
SCANDISK /all

Ctrl + alt + del
to reboot

after full boot
Start > Run SCANDSKW
click OK

you prolly have corrupt fonts
these get d/l and installed without you even knowing
Run SpyBot and Adaware after a thorough up to date Anti-Virus scan


TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs