No background color and wrong fonts on IE!

hmmmmmm did you try opening IE before applying SP2 or you installed XP from SP2 slipstremed CD and right after installing this problem was there ??
and just confirming that if you have already installed the latest video drivers for your video card :-?
Try opening IE in safemode, same issue there also ??

also just try running this tool >> http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm
may be the installation of any program which you installed has messed up IE registries or files :-/

ok- I tried all the above and still no success...anything else I might be able to try? This problem bothers me more than it does my mom - afterall I was only trying to help her out and created another set of problems!
Thanks-
ohramos

try creating a new user accoutn from control panel>user accounts and check there for the problem ??
may be its only a profile issue :-?

have you tried to disable firewall , pop-up blocker and check if that would help

have you repaired or reinstalled IE yet ?

Did this issue come after Sp2 installation ?

I'll try that tomorrow- I just got back from her house working on all the other suggestions, so I might not be able to reply all too soon.

no problem at all.... take your time :)

I have tried firewall/ popup blocker - no help there...

I did not check to see if IE worked ok before I put on SP2- so I really don't know if that could be the problem or not.
Before the reinstall of XP, SP2 was installed and all worked fine.
I went thru Add/Remove Components - to remove IE and then added it again. Is that considered repair/reinstall??

Oh,- SP2 was put on with the CD

>> I went thru Add/Remove Components - to remove IE and then added it again. Is that considered repair/reinstall??
the IEFix tool can repair IE very well :)

yes, I'm sorry-  I did try that too - didn't help out with the problem tho...

hmmmmm no problem..... we still have some more ideas to work with.... dont lose hope =)

Do you think I should uninstall SP2 and see if that helps?
I'm wondering tho, because IE worked fine before I did the reinstall of XP(which also had SP2)

I feel confident that someway this will get fixed! :)

No dont try to uninstall SP2.... im sure we can solve it without uninstalling it :)
just let me know the results of the new user, so that it can be confirmed that the problem is system-wide or just a corrupted profile issue =)

if you had not installed Sp2 seperately then it would be hard to uninstall it .

explain the problem still more
what do you mean by wrong fonts ?

do you have any other browser to test that same website ?

OK...
 Mom uses IE 6.0 and her home page is msn.com.
When I open IE, there is absolutely no background color - it's white. No pictures on the page show up, and the type on the pg. is blue but the fonts are the wrong size.
 By that I mean:
The words "MSN Search" by the search bar are so large that there is hardly any space in the search bar. When you type in an address you can only see the last few letters.
( I have her font settings the same as mine... the same as what you told me earlier -- so that I could recognize a change if there was one) Some type seems large, and others are super large!
I will try to get back by her tonight to search with another browser. Thanks for another idea!

When I change the font size, I can notice a slight difference, but even on the smallest setting the letters are still noticably large, with the sam problem with the search bar.
All web pages show up the same way.

IE should be up to date, but I will double check on that.
I will also ck using another browser.
Thanks again!

I have encountered this same problem on two different computers. An employee brought his home computer to me & this computer is using WinXP SP2. My wife's home computer is also afflicted & she is using Win2K SP4 with IE6 SP1. I've tried all your sugestions & none have worked. Any more ideas?

mrzitro -
I wish I could help...it is much more frustrating for me than for my Mom who doesn't use the internet often.
She got fed up with me trying to fix her computer that she no longer wants me to work on it. So it remains with the problem. I don't have the time to work on it anyway -(hence my lack of commenting back here for awhile) ,as I'm in the midst of moving and have tons of other things to do- if you get a solution, pass it on!
Did any of those pc's do a re-install of Windows XP w/ SP1 from the disc?
Just curious
Thanks,
ohramos

I have been on this all morning and have given up trying to save my current profile.  The fastest solution is to create a new login name (I have win2000) and the new profile will load IE pages correctly again.  Now transfer settings and documents, what a pain.  I tried everything else including re-installing IE, accessibility wizard, font changes, on and on.  A collosal waste of my time.
David

hi
i had the same problem in my computer ' i worked on it for few hours and after comparing all settings with new profile and the old profile i noticed that the resetting of the option that i will discribe solved the problem:

open internet explorer | tooles | internet options | accessibilitiy | and removed all tree check boxes from the top to be cleared/

my problem was solved.

hope it helped you too.
ben.

Hehehe,  
 You all try to solve this.  Nice trys, hehe.  This site would be more useful if the "Accepted Solutions " were accurate.  To solve the problem right (A.K.A. no making a new user,  without insult to anyone (I think people would check View->Text Size before posting) , no reinstall hehe)

This worked for me and matches the symtoms.
Click Start....  JK

Open Accessibility Options in control panel; Display Tab, uncheck "Use High Contrast".

hehe that wasn't so bad was it?

You are a genius -
this took me 5 days to resolve and I had finally given up and installed Firefox. This solution worked perfect.
Thank-you

Sonte,

Thank you for this - I was having an IDENTICAL problem to ohramos, and your little tip solved it - although I did have to go back into desktop settings and amend my theme back to XP, as when I applied your fix, it turned all the toolbars and window frames green!!

Thanks again.

Note: Can Mods re-allocate the acceted answer on this one, as there appears to have been an error, as the accepted answer is a question??