[sixthdegreedan]

A few days ago, many pictures on different webpages started showing up looking like the attached pictures. They look "glitchy" and many of them are half covered with a solid grey color. In addition, many pages will not load up and instead present me with a "Content Encoding Error." Sometimes refreshing a page multiple times will finally bring me to the page. This happens in all browsers, though the specific "Content Encoding Error" occurs in Firefox, the browser I usually use. Internet Explorer just states that it cannot load the webpage. Also, sometimes videos or buttons will not load up on pages at all. All of these started happening around the same time, and I cannot think of a single thing that I have added to or changed on my computer around that time. Has anyone ever seen these before, and if so, can anyone help me fix this?

I have scanned my computer for viruses, deleted 50GB worth of items on my computer to free up space, and run Firefox in safe mode, but nothing seems to do anything.

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Does it happen in browsers only, or in other programs as well?
Same situation in Safe Mode with Networking?

[Broni]

Does it happen in browsers only, or in other programs as well?
Same situation in Safe Mode with Networking?

[sixthdegreedan]

I've only encountered it in browsers.
By Safe Mode with Networking, do you mean starting Windows Vista in that mode? If so, I haven't tried that yet, but I will tomorrow to see what happens.

[Broni]

do you mean starting Windows Vista in that mode?

Yes.
Also, what version of FF do you use?
Does it happen on all pages?
If not, can you post couple of links?
See, if pressing Ctrl+F5 helps.

[sixthdegreedan]

The same thing happened when I started Windows in Safe Mode with Networking.
I'm using Firefox version 3.5.2.
I've yet to encounter it on some pages, but it occurs much more often on certain sites. It happens to a great deal of photo posts on www.tumblr.com.

I forgot to mention that many times, a page will show up incorrectly. Sometimes many graphics will not appear and the page will be white with black text, sometimes coding will appear with the graphics, and sometimes the entire page will just be in code.

Whenever I use Ctrl+F5 when the coding messes up, sometimes it will refresh and everything will be fine, sometimes it will refresh and the same problem will be there, and sometimes it will refresh and a new problem will occur. When I use Ctrl+F5 when the pictures display like they do, a similar situation occurs. Sometimes the pictures don't change, sometimes they fix themselves, and sometimes they look messed up in a different way or pictures that were previously fine become messed up.

[Broni]

Not much else comes to my mind at this moment...

[sixthdegreedan]

I'm currently using a laptop connected to wireless internet, but I just discovered that the desktop computer in my house also connected to the same internet connection experiences the same problems. Could it possibly be a problem with the internet?

[Broni]

It very well could be.

What type of connection is it?

1. Click Start>Run (Start>"Start search" in Vista).

2. Type in (or copy and paste):

cmd /c ping google.com>%temp%\$.$&notepad %temp%\$.$

and press Enter.

3. Notepad will open.

4. Copy all text in Notepad ([Ctrl-A], then [Ctrl-C]), and then post it (paste = [Ctrl-V]) in your next reply.

[sixthdegreedan]

Pinging google.com [74.125.45.100] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.45.100: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=48

Reply from 74.125.45.100: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=48

Reply from 74.125.45.100: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=48

Reply from 74.125.45.100: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=48



Ping statistics for 74.125.45.100:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 44ms, Maximum = 45ms, Average = 44ms

[Broni]

Ping time looks pretty good.
What are your readings from here: http://www.speedtest.net/

You didn't say, what type of connection you have, and what's your ISP advertised speed.

[sixthdegreedan]

Sorry, my connection is DSL from Bellsouth.

This is what I got:

[Broni]

Those numbers look fine.

Turn computer off. Disconnect modem and router from the power source for 1 minute.
Power then up, turn the computer on.
Same problem?
If so, try to bypass router and connect the computer straight to the modem (with both devices off).