Images Problem With My Computer

Factual Questions
#1

This problem is only associated with certain sites too. It’s easier for me to show you what’s wrong , with screenshots.

On LiveJournal.com, my mood icons, and also, my friends’ mood icons don’t show up. They look like this: Icon screenshot.
The white squares are where the little smiley faces are supposed to be. Also, I’ve asked my friends, and they all say they can see the icons with no problem.

Here are my multimedia settings: Multimedia settings. Nothing seems out of sorts there, right?

Another site I have problems with is Proboards. Instead of the usual “New Topic” or “Post Reply” buttons, there are only little pinpoints that I have to aim exactly with my pointer or the finger won’t show up (as in, telling me it’s a link). Here is what it looks like: Proboards Link See the little pinpoints in the top right corner where one would usually see “New Topic” or “Post Reply” buttons? Yes, that’s what those four little dots are. This happens on two Proboards that I visit.

Now before you blame Proboard’s servers, my friends can see them fine. Also, I went to another Proboard, and the buttons there, I can see.

To test if it was my computer, I just went to LiveJournal on another computer in my house, and the white squares instead of mood icons are still there.

This has been happening for months.

Last month I had a few viruses and spyware and I succesfully rid my comp of all of it, and since this was happening way before the viruses hit, I don’t think it’s related (also, the other computer can’t bring up the images either).

So can anyone here figure it out? Also, here’s a link to my LJ friends’ page, see if you can see the icons for yourself.

HELP! I will be your best friend if you can help (well maybe not, but I would greatly appreciate it–it’s been bugging me for months…all this time I just figured it was LJ). :smiley:

#2

Also, added info: my friend suggested removing/repairing/reinstalling Internet Explorer. So I did. Same thing.

I’ve also looked at those sites with Mozilla Firefox. Same thing.

#3

Just a shot in the dark. Your icon cache could be filled up.

Try this link…
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=56

#4

So, I’m in regedit…those values in the screenshot, are they supposed to be in quotation marks?

…and if I didn’t have a folder named “Icon Cache” at all (referring to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced*IconCache*”), this guy is saying to CREATE one? Am I understanding this correctly?

#5

I haven’t tried that yet…still waiting for other opinions, no offense. :smiley:

Also tried checking it with Netscape, 7.1…same thing.

I am running Windows XP.

#6

No one else has any idea?

I don’t think it’s that Icon cache dealio.

#7

I noticed the Livejournal pictures didn’t end in .gif or .jpg. For example http://userpic.livejournal.com/1967444/503987

Could this have anything to do with them not displaying?

Also, when you uninstalled and reinstalled Internet Explorer, did you totally uninstall it?

#8

So… what’s your OS? From the pics there, I’m guessing anything from Win98 to XP.

The icons there are “icons”, but they’re not icons icons, so clearing that cache won’t work.

Do both these PCs have the same type of video card? What type are they? Off the top of my head, I’d try using the latest video drivers for your cards.

If you save those images, can you view them in IE, Firefox, Paint?

#9

Someone on another vBulletin board I’m on had the same problem a while back. We had her try tons of things - clear cache, cookies, IE update, etc. I searched all over the vB support forum for similar problems, but didn’t find any help. I, too, thought that the problem was with the method of displaying images (through a PHP script instead of just “plain” html) but that wasn’t the case.

I remember asking her to send me the HTML source for pages she was viewing and the HTML for the images was not there at all.

I kind of “gave up” on her plight, because nothing was working, but she ended up playing with security settings in IE and all was well. Unfortunately, she didn’t share which settings.

#10

Very odd. You could try typing an image link directly into the address bar, like http://userpic.livejournal.com/1967444/503987 from above, and see what you get that way, but if it’s happening across browsers and machines, it seems likely you’re just not getting the proper download. Is it possible you have some sort of content filtering installed like NetNanny or whatever? You’re behind a firewall? Your ISP does content filtering?

#11

I don’t think I did uninstall it, now that I look at it. It seems too humbug to do, and because I really don’t think it’s the problem, as it has the same situation, across IE, Netscape 7.1, FireFox AND Opera.

I’ve tried the cut/paste the image in other browsers, same thing.

Also, i tried this on my boyfriend’s OTHER computer in the house (we have 3 altogether)…and it’s perfectly fine there. We have cable and we are all on the same router.

#12

By “same thing” I mean I get the URL for the image, and I cut/paste into another browser, and there is noting in the window. Period.

The other LJ images, which also don’t have proper .jpg/.gif tags, DO show up…as in their user pictures…it’s just the mood icons.

#13

Umm, yes they are. Just because the icons are in a HTML page doesn’t mean they are no longer icons.

Okay, try this.
Goto Windows Explorer and open your Windows directory.
Find a file called ShellIconCache and delete it.
Restart the computer.

If that still does work, you can try the registry thing. And yup, you create a new entry if it doesn’t exist.

#14

jjtm80, I’m suspecting that that icon cache that that page was talking about were the images (icons) such as, the pictures of folders and whatever when you go into a file.

I don’t understand why the user pictures (which are also hosted on LiveJournal’s servers) work, while the little Mood “smileys” don’t work…and also the little padlock (that indicates it’s a locked topic).

I’m going to play around with the security settings, like ZipperJJ suggested, and I’ll report back.

#15

Do you ever get other pictures not showing up? If so it may be an MTU issue. I’ve seen that do some weird things to browsers. What is the MTU setting in your Router?

#16

Precicely. These have their own special attributes, storage, and representation within windows, the properties of which can be rebuilt using the method above, or by using TweakUI’s “Rebuild Icons” feature.

The “icons” on the livejournal page are mere gifs or jpegs, and get stuck in the browser cache like any other image data.

#17

First of all, I am fairly proficient in figuring out problems with my comp, but I still have no idea what a MTU is. :smiley:

#18

Also, I played around with the security settings, and Anonymous Coward, sorry I forgot to answer this but no, I don’t have any other problems except with those two places: LiveJournal and certain Proboards.