Topic: Encoding & Fonts Problem

[rad]

My OS is WIN 95 using IE/OE 5.5 and for last two days, I was installing and trying out few True Type Fonts. Since then, something has gone wrong with the Encoding / Fonts. The headers of Outlook Express (one below the menu bar and buttons) as well as the sub-windows of few other software show boxes (like MS MapSystem mapsym.ttf) in place of text making it totally unreadable. I had changed once, the encoding option in Internet Explorer to Unicode (UTF-8). I tried to change it back to Western European (Windows) or Western European (ISO) etc., but the same problem persists. Maybe some fonts file got corrupt. But how to find it out and rectify it? Please help.

[greenking]

Hi Rad  

I'm not an expert here but I run windows 98 and I had a similar problem a while ago.

I went to start-programs-accessories-system tools and then ran the maintenance wizzard.
this sorted it out for me  

Hope this helps.....if not one of the clever ones on here will be along in a while who will no doubt be able to help more  8)

[Adept]

Hi Rad I hope we can get to a solution to your problem

Have a look at this Microsoft Knowledgebase article. I think it might sort out the problem for you.

The article contains information about modifying the registry files which, if things go wrong, can be harmful to your PC. Please make sure you have a backup of your registry file, as described in the article, before making any changes.


Greenking - I don't think Win95 has a maintenance wizard

[rad]

Hi Rad I hope we can get to a solution to your problem

Have a look at this Microsoft Knowledgebase article. I think it might sort out the problem for you.

Hello Adept,

Downloaded the Microsoft article. But just before trying out that tricky stuff, can this problem arise because the number of fonts in fonts directory? I have 158 ttf fonts. Is this a fonts loading problem?

[Adept]

Hi Rad, I suppose it's possible I know I have had a lot more than 158 fonts on Win98 without problems. Don't think I've had that many on Win95 before though.

It's easy to test out whether they are causing the problem. Make a new folder and copy all the ttf files from \windows\fonts into it (except Arial, Courier New, MS Sans Serif, Times New Roman and possibly Marlett).

Reboot your PC and see what happens

[rad]

Thanks Adept, for providing useful hint.
Actually, what I did was, I started removing one by one, the new fonts which I had recently installed. The "Access Denied" error popped up for three of them. So I restarted the machine in "MS DOS Mode", removed those fonts, and rebooted. Voila!! Everything is in place now!! No more junk characters in OE or other software.
Once again thanks a lot everybody.
It's very nice when problems get solved like this sharing the thoughts! May be one day, I will be able to help somebody like this.
Regards.

[Adept]

It's very nice when problems get solved like this sharing the thoughts! May be one day, I will be able to help somebody like this.

Thanks for letting up know Rad. It sometimes helps to focus your thoughts just thinking it through when you write the question down. I'm glad you got it sorted anyway 8) (despite my "help" )

I hope you stick around and join in the fun