Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Why has my browser gone all squiffy?

Kit-Cat Club

09:16 / 27.01.03

I was innocently reading my morning websites just now when my browser (and actually, it seems to have happened to everything on the computer - so perhaps it is a problem with the screen setup? Erk) sort of shook itself and redistributed everything across the window. So that, instead of the usual neat Barbelith, I have it skewed over to the right. This means that all the text in the middle of the screen is sprawled over it, and then squished up towards the right-hand side (so that, with a window at full screen, I can't really see the 'close window' button.

It's not text size, and I've restarted the wretched machine - does anyone have any idea of what has happened and what I can do to make it stop? Thanks...

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:28 / 27.01.03

Hmm. Sounds like your monitor display controls have gone farked. Try playing around with them; you should be able to bodily move the picture left/right/etc with them. Try centering it and then resizing... it sounds like it's just forgotten the setup.

Erm, either that or your video card's about to die.

Kit-Cat Club

09:58 / 27.01.03

Ah, thank you. And... erm... how would I go about doing that?

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:07 / 27.01.03

There should be buttons on the front of the monitor that have arrows or something on them... it should bring up an on-screen menu...

The local Goth prototype has become a run-of-the-mill example of the apocalypse.

10:17 / 27.01.03

I think that your problem has something that got to do with similar display devices like the television. I am not a technical person. But if you were to dig out info on the history of television development and its problems from the library, that might helps. How old is your monitor or which version is your browser?

Kit-Cat Club

10:26 / 27.01.03

I have, through a cunning process of trial and error, established that it isn't the monitor - so I guess it must be the Windoze setup. The actual screen size and positioning seems all right - twiddled it a bit - it just that everything on the screen is being shunted over to the right and condensed; and if I try to adjust the screen to the left, it just goes off the edge.

I dunno how old the monitor is - pretty aged as these things go, I bought it from Tom a couple of years ago. I'm running Windows 98, I fink...

Tezcatlipoca

10:27 / 27.01.03

Rothkoid's diagnosis in pretty much spot on. It's either you monitor settings or your video card settings, although I suspect the former. Have a play with the controls on the front of the monitor to see if that fixes it.

Tezcatlipoca

10:33 / 27.01.03

Oops, sorry. Was posting as you did. Um...if that's the case it might be the graphics card. Have you tried shutting down the PC, waiting 30 seconds, then starting her up again?

You could try right clicking on the desktop, selecting Properties, then the Settings tab at the top of the box. The 'colors' box should say True Color (32bit), and the slider bar will have you current resolution. I suggest changing the resolution to something else (if it's in 800x600 try selecting 1024x768) and seeing if it rights itself. If it does, then just swap back to 800x600.

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:33 / 27.01.03

Try changing the resolution in your screen control panel... then flicking it back...

Charles Darwin

23:57 / 27.01.03

Yeah, now you mention about the screen control panels.....I think too that there should be some buttons or controls that allow you to shunt the screen back to the center. You might have forgotten where the controls are like I did. There was once where I adjusted the shift screen button where I thought is the brightness button. Then I reach for the brightness buttton, forgetting that I have touch the shift screen button. This might be the problem that you are encountering.

persona_o

01:53 / 28.01.03

I had something similar happen to me, but it was a direct problem with the monitor.. it had fried. I was using the computer, when suddenly the computer flickered, and the screen shrunk down to like a 4X4 box... and then I smelt something burning...

So, if you really want to check out what is wrong, plug your monitor into another computer, or plug another monitor into your computer.

Then throw the monitor into a dumpster, as it makes a cool crashing sound.

Add Your Reply