| Author | Message | ||
     Phillip Perkinson (Rover4x4) Senior Member Username: Rover4x4 Post Number: 551 Registered: 02-2003 |
Okay so all of my desktop icons/shortcuts etc. are all black with the exception of Word. Everything else functions normal. my icons are just all blank. the only way you can see them is a blackout line and the name of what they represent? WTF? thanks for any insight. | ||
| Al Oliveira (Offroaddisco) Senior Member Username: Offroaddisco Post Number: 1607 Registered: 04-2002 |
Sounds like a bad video driver to me. You can try changing the color depth but I would update the video driver anyway. Did anything chage before this happening? What was installed or updated? | ||
| Phillip Perkinson (Rover4x4) Senior Member Username: Rover4x4 Post Number: 552 Registered: 02-2003 |
nothing. I have windows ME FWIW | ||
| Jamil Abbasy (Jamooche) Member Username: Jamooche Post Number: 207 Registered: 05-2003 |
Upgrade to XP and you will not have any silly problems ever again. Most relible operating system I have used, and I have used them all, even before windows when they only had dos. Jamil | ||
| Alan Yim (Alan) Senior Member Username: Alan Post Number: 941 Registered: 09-2002 |
The only issue with Windows XP is that it's a resource pig so if your computer doesn't have enough juice (in particular RAM), it's going to lag a bit, enough to annoy you. Going to Windows 2000 will achieve similar reliability but its resource requirements are not as high so possibly a better option depending on your hardware configuration. As an example, on my PC I run a 750 Mhz chip with 800 MB of RAM and am using Windows 2000. I haven't had any issues with this station in a long time and it hasn't needed a rebuild for quite some time (talking years here). I have considered going to XP but suspect that my chip may be a bit on the slow side for it hence haven't jumped up yet (I may try it one day). My laptop is a 1.8 MHz chip with 512 MB of RAM and it runs XP fine. You mentioned that you're running Windows ME. That in itself is one of the problems. ME isn't the best OS in the Windows lineup. I've had a lot of clients have problems with that OS and instead of trying to fix it have just bumped them up to 2000 instead. They've all been quite a bit happier and haven't heard them come back with problems (aside from virus stuff). Something to think about Phillip. In my opinion, Windows ME is an OS waiting to fail. I'd rather run Windows 98SE than run ME. | ||
| Phillip Perkinson (Rover4x4) Senior Member Username: Rover4x4 Post Number: 553 Registered: 02-2003 |
see things like that cost $$. computer OS isnt important | ||
| Alan Yim (Alan) Senior Member Username: Alan Post Number: 942 Registered: 09-2002 |
Oh yea about your current problem. Do as Al suggests and go to the website of the video card mfr and find the latest driver for ME. Reinstall it and see if your problem gets solved. It may but it sounds like your video card may be going. If you have a spare one, try it out and see if your display problem clears up. If it does, then your card may be going but do the driver thing first. Also go to the Windows Update site and see if any driver patches come up. | ||
| Craig Kobayashi (Koby) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Koby Post Number: 715 Registered: 02-2002 |
Philip- Sounds like a problem common with older ATI video drivers. Verify what type of video card you are running then upgrade to the latest driver. You inevitably will want to upgrade to Win2K. ME sucks. | ||
| Alan Yim (Alan) Senior Member Username: Alan Post Number: 943 Registered: 09-2002 |
"see things like that cost $$. computer OS isnt important" Bad OS will cause you more headaches than it's worth considering it runs your computer. Without it, your computer is just a big paper weight. | ||
| Phillip Perkinson (Rover4x4) Senior Member Username: Rover4x4 Post Number: 554 Registered: 02-2003 |
updated driver to no avail. F-it if if breaks i will get a new one. Computer not that important for much other than email, music, www. and microsoft office programs. who makes good video cards? | ||
| Craig Kobayashi (Koby) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Koby Post Number: 718 Registered: 02-2002 |
ATI and nVidia | ||
| Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) Senior Member Username: Deanbrown3d Post Number: 1094 Registered: 02-2002 |
It sounds like a once-only resource fuck up. If you create a new icon (shortcut) does it also go black? If you copy and paste an existing icon does it stay black or return to it normal icon? If it copies back to normal, do the same to each of them and then delete the black ones, and then restart. You may be fine after this. Dean | ||
| Al Oliveira (Offroaddisco) Senior Member Username: Offroaddisco Post Number: 1608 Registered: 04-2002 |
"see things like that cost $$. computer OS isnt important" Did someone say Linux?  OS = Free and much more stable than even XP Back to the originial problem.... did you try reducing the color depth? Al Some software money can't buy. For everything else there's Micros~1 | ||
| Joey (Joey4420) Senior Member Username: Joey4420 Post Number: 457 Registered: 04-2003 |
Icons can be fun.... Another thing that can cause this is if your icon cache is full or corrupt. Find the file named sh*lliconcache and delete it, then reboot your system and Windows will generate a new one. Hope this helps | ||
| Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) Senior Member Username: Deanbrown3d Post Number: 1100 Registered: 02-2002 |
Why the asterisk? | ||
| Gabe Isham (Jet99) On Probation Username: Jet99 Post Number: 11 Registered: 03-2003 |
one word "linux" | ||
| Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) Senior Member Username: Deanbrown3d Post Number: 1102 Registered: 02-2002 |
one more word "typing" | ||
| Phillip Perkinson (Rover4x4) Senior Member Username: Rover4x4 Post Number: 555 Registered: 02-2003 |
icons stay the same if i try to make new ones. still trying to figure out color depth. thanks for the help. | ||
| Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) Senior Member Username: Deanbrown3d Post Number: 1104 Registered: 02-2002 |
Phillip - right-click on desktop, go to Properties. Go to the settings tab. At the bottom where it says Colors, select a different setting. Maybe try 16 bit High Color. Dean | ||
| Joey (Joey4420) Senior Member Username: Joey4420 Post Number: 461 Registered: 04-2003 |
Sorry about the * I just copied from and old note and didn't even think about it..... it should just be "shelliconcache" without the quotes of course. | ||
| Jeff Mclaird (Granitedisco) New Member Username: Granitedisco Post Number: 37 Registered: 08-2003 |
I think your pc has the Redmond virus - upgrade to Linux immediately | ||
| Mark Sager (Msager007) New Member Username: Msager007 Post Number: 31 Registered: 05-2003 |
right click on the desktop, go to properties. Go to the effects tab. Uncheck the box "Show all icons with all possible colors." This has fixed the problem for me on several different computers. | ||
| Reed Cotton (Reedcotton) Senior Member Username: Reedcotton Post Number: 278 Registered: 01-2003 |
As has been mentioned above, this is a video resourse problem. When testing video drivers it is best to try them first at 800x600 and 256 colors. This is the industry standard for VGA (or is it super VGA?) Further reducing the colors to 16 (only for testing)will free up even more resources. Anyway if the machine gives you missing icons at that setting, check the video driver first (For a current video card that is having problems the manufacturer may be updating the driver on a regular basis.) Older cards are supported until the "new" cards come out, then getting a new driver may be problematic. Someone above also mentioned resources. How many programs do you have running at one time? Closing those down one at a time might help figure out which is taxing your video memory. Some cards have a large built-in memory just to avoid these problems. Is this computer new to you? Is this something that has been happening since day one? Do you have a remote control program running in the background? (Older versions of these will do evil things to your video resourses.) Did this problen start after installing a particular program? Is your hard drive getting full? (If you run out of TEMP space, other progams may "steal" memory from your video resources. I don't know much about ME or XP, but with Win 98se or Win2K, you may want to drop into "Safe Mode" and see if the problem goes away with none of the fancy stuff running. Most of the advice you have been given by all has been good. (At least until the penguins popped up!) If the machine/video card is new and you have some time on your hands, and the Support number is toll-free, give Tech Support a call and let them chew on it for a while. (Hey! It might work!) Good luck, -Reed | ||
| Al Oliveira (Offroaddisco) Senior Member Username: Offroaddisco Post Number: 1612 Registered: 04-2002 |
Another note on the video driver. When upgrading the video driver it helps to first uninstall the old driver and revert back to a "standard VGA" Windows driver then reboot BEFORE intalling the new driver. This was very common with some older Dimond and ATI drivers. | ||
| Dean Brown (Deanbrown3d) Senior Member Username: Deanbrown3d Post Number: 1116 Registered: 02-2002 |
Phillip used to have ok icons right? So does that really mean he now has an out dated driver or a corrupt driver? I doubt that it changed. I think more likely its a broken or limited resource issue as mentioned above. I would certainly try the shelliconcache method that joey said. | ||
| Al Oliveira (Offroaddisco) Senior Member Username: Offroaddisco Post Number: 1613 Registered: 04-2002 |
Corruption of the driver? | ||
| Reed Cotton (Reedcotton) Senior Member Username: Reedcotton Post Number: 279 Registered: 01-2003 |
Dean, It is always a good idea to have the latest drivers. There are reasons that they are updated that the manufacturers may not wish to publish. It may be something as simple as a non-compatibility issue with someone elses new OS updates. So yes, drivers that were working yesterday, could be bad today. Or he could have installed a new program that is incompatible with the "old" driver. It is just like tuning a car. You want to have properly working components before you start adjusting things. A leaky carb or exhaust gasket can make it impossible to properly "tune" a car by replacing the plugs and setting the points. On the other hand, you are probably right, this is a problem of resources (memory). A new driver addresses all the issues that the video card people know about and can fix. Then you can start playing with cashe and other memory issues. Reading through the thread again, Al's thoughts seem to parrallel mine most of the time. -Reed | ||
| Phillip Perkinson (Rover4x4) Senior Member Username: Rover4x4 Post Number: 556 Registered: 02-2003 |
I do all the windows updates etc when they become availible i suppose the machine is 2 years old i got it new. I dont have more than 5 or 6 things running at a time so its not a RAM thing. it could likely be related to the card. i am not concerned if it craps out i will get a new one. thanks for all your help it is appreciated. | ||
| Steven Ratajczyk (Stevenr) Member Username: Stevenr Post Number: 52 Registered: 05-2003 |
Phillip, I think you need a Mac. | ||
| Steve Andrews (Sillybus) Senior Member Username: Sillybus Post Number: 400 Registered: 08-2002 |
MACs and Linux? Next I guess you'll recommend he drive a Jeep. (Former Microsoft Developer) :-) | ||
| Sergei Rodionov (Uzbad) Member Username: Uzbad Post Number: 220 Registered: 08-2003 |
"I have used, and I have used them all, even before windows when they only had dos" Sorry, couldnt help but laugh at that.. All.. Arf. Anyway, back to the topic. Phillip - most likely its wonky graphics settings and driver. One of things is of course to upgrade to recent windows version, another is to upgrade to decent OS (namely good Linux distro for PC) but its like way too much trouble. If it just did happen all the sudden - try to remember what you done. Try to set color depth to be 16 bit (65535 colors) - for certain video cards it would not only fix problems but will boost performance as well Btw have you tried to look at them with "safe mode" boot (pressing F8 when your box starting up will giver you that option)? Are they still black then? | ||
| Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Leslie Post Number: 2746 Registered: 02-2002 |
Okay, I've been biting my tongue, but I can't anymore.... Windows ME is the single worst OS ever. It's a nightmare to try to get it to work right. The best thing you can do for that computer is to put ANY other OS on there instead of ME. XP, 2K, NT (4.0 oe 3.51), 98, 95, even 3.11 or 3.1.... heck, go to MS-Dos 6.22 if you have to.... I've used every single one of them, and have to say that ME is the biggest piece of crap I've dealt with. I'd almost go pull the ol' Apple II out of the bottom of the closet and hook it up to use before I'd waste time with ME. I used to run Unix software inside an emulator under 95, and it was less trouble than keeping quirks out of ME. I've had more success running Mac emulators on home-built PCs than I have at getting peripherals to work right on my friends' computers that have ME. Switching to a Mac would be better than using ME, and that's hard for me to say.... Linux is fine if you're so inclined.... but, if you're the kind of person who should be using Linux, you woudn't be posting on a Rover board for computer help. You in college? College bookstores usually have VERY cheap prices on software compared to buying it elsewhere..... -L | ||
| Sergei Rodionov (Uzbad) Member Username: Uzbad Post Number: 221 Registered: 08-2003 |
ahhh Apple][... Nice to know i am not only one here who keep one in closet "just in case"... | ||
| Eugene (Eugene) Member Username: Eugene Post Number: 131 Registered: 02-2003 |
Don't get me started on Windows ME. I'm very particular about keeping my computers maintained. While using the disk defrag utility on ME, it locked up and took all my data with it. Since I had to rebuild the hard drive anyway, I used that as an excuse to buy an upgrade to XP. I'm fond of NetBSD and OS X these days, but NetBSD is probably too much hassle for most. OS X is very nice, but I won't push my pro-Apple stance on anyone. |
