Why Is It Doing This?

[RoseRed]

A couple of months ago I had this strange problem start. When I refresh the page, all the fonts get really big and I get messages across the top of the screen like the one below. If I refresh again, it goes back to normal.

I ran a defrag and it didn't help at all. I am such a when it comes to the inner workings and fix its. Any suggestions?

der="0" src="http://images.somd.com/somd/masthead.gif" width="385" height="65" alt="Southern Maryland Online - Serving Calvert, Charles, & St. Mary's Counties. Click here to go to the Front Page of somd.com.">

 

[Kizzy]

I take it you are running IE as a web browser? And somd.com is the only page doing this?

 

[RoseRed]

Yes and it does it on other sites too.

 

[Vince]

All the crap they put on the internet nowadays it's a wonder you can run your computer at all. Mine had some much sh!t on it, after I ran Adware, it cleaned a couple hundred files off. Now I've got one file stuck on it that keeps trying to run something that's not there anymore. I know it's a dayum popup or something. Like to get ahold of the person that created it and

 

[Kain99]

I've seen that before! Thought it was just a dial up glitch.

 

[RoseRed]

Originally posted by Kain99
I've seen that before! Thought it was just a dial up glitch.

I have used dial up for years and it didn't start until just a few months ago.

 

[Kain99]

Originally posted by RoseRed
I have used dial up for years and it didn't start until just a few months ago.

Maybe thats not it then....

 

[RoseRed]

Originally posted by HollywoodFred
How often does it happen?

A lot.

 

[tirdun]

The "message" you get is part of the HTML that runs SOMD.com, so it sounds like IE is missing part of the web page. My first guess is that you aren't getting the headers for the page and its messing up the CSS load, so the page just gives you garbage. When you reload, it gets the whole file and displays properly.

So, if you're still reading this :dosman:

The why is the kicker. If its not a problem on SOMD, then its a problem either with your browser, connection or cache. You could have an old copy of the css in cache... I suppose, and it's broke. So doing a CTRL+F5 to get a full refresh might fix the problem. Or your connection is bad, which I can't fix, or you've got some setting in IE that's not right.

I suppose you also might have a proxy server set up that's filtering content wrong, or a firewall that's doing something. But I doubt it. If you're running XP you could temporarily turn off the firewall and see if that's the problem, but like I said, I kind of doubt it.

Or it could be that SOMD is just running slow and your browser isn't happy about it. In which case there's not much you could do.

 

[Hot N Bothered]

I have that problem occasionally. I just go to the "view" at the top of the screen, then "text size" and return it to normal. I don't know why it changes, but I used to just refresh like you do and it happened a lot. When I change it using the menu, it is good for a couple months.

 

[Oz]

I do this all the time... By accident!

What is happening is that you're using the little roller wheel on the mouse, to move the screen up and down, while your CONTROL key is depressed. It's easy to do if you're typing/browsing because CTRL is so close to Shift. That will change the text size on the fly in Windows 98, and XP...

 

[RoseRed]

Thanks for the ideas HNB and Oz.

New problem is spyware Ran spybot and it only goes about 1/2 way through and stops. I get pop up ads when even when only my friggin mail is open.

 

[Oz]

In general, beware of free software. Personally, I would never install free software.

However, in a case like this where David has done his homework on AVG, and actually uses it, you can take a decision based on his info.

 

[tirdun]

In general, beware of free software. Personally, I would never install free software.

Since you're posting this on the internet, I almost guarantee you use free software. MS Internet Explorer is free, as is Mozilla and Opera and so forth. So unless you paid for a browser, you're using free software. MS Media Player, WinAmp, and other music/video systems are also free, and I'd bet you're using at least one of those too.

I use quite a bit of free software, but I do my research first. Most of what I use is from either SourceForge or is recommended to me by groups I trust. My AV is Avast, which is free with registration for home users. I also have some free programming tools and a few free games.