PDA

View Full Version : Wtf!!!!????



Fish boy
05-24-2005, 08:50 AM
OK, so I get up this morning and turn on my home compter (had to get my donzi fix :) ) and the initil windows password screen comes on. However, every letter is now what appears to be a wing-ding character. Even when I tried to type my password, it was not a black dot that usually represents each character I type, now it is a box.

I powered down, let it sit for a little and tried it again. Same thing. Powered down again, cursed at it a little, and tried doing a search for similar problems on the net from my work compouter but no luck. I don't know if it is a virus or just one of those windows things, but thought I would ask before I do something that cannot be undone.

Anyone have any ideas??

Thanks,

fish

Windows XP, norton AV, scan weekly, spysseeper used weekly,

txtaz
05-24-2005, 09:28 AM
Fish, Those are called character masks. Since it is the windows login it should be a part of your themes. Hymm, can't find it. I'll look into it. BUT, you should be able to login with your password no matter what the mask is. If not you have other issues.
Wes

Fish boy
05-24-2005, 09:39 AM
Fish, Those are called character masks. Since it is the windows login it should be a part of your themes. Hymm, can't find it. I'll look into it. BUT, you should be able to login with your password no matter what the mask is. If not you have other issues.
Wes

Hey Wes,
I think it is a little more than character mask. Every word on the password login screen is now a wingding.. everything.

I actually found a few threads on some help sites about it and I guess I am not the first one to have this problem. Looks like somewhere bewteen system restore and reinstalling windows is the answer.

I did not go past the password screen since I did nt want to chance making anything worse. I am going to try to login, and manually change the fonts for the programs, but it appears most with this problem seem to have the wingdings return shortly after. Hopefuly I can back up my files, just woried if it is a virus that I will take it with me to my backup drive.
URGH! :smash:

txtaz
05-24-2005, 10:25 AM
Fish, If you think you need to re-install XP, I would get a new hard drive and do a fresh install. HD's are cheap. Then power down and install your existing HD as a slave to your new one. Now you can copy all your files from the old one to the new one. Once you have them all, reformat the old one. Then you will have tons of storage for restoration points. LOL
Hope this helps.
Wes
PS, It's a good practice to replace hard drives every few years depending on use. Dad didn't belive me on this one and now I'M doing the data recovery. BTW, installing them is easy. If you need help shoot me an email.

Formula Jr
05-24-2005, 12:32 PM
xp lets you go back to an "reset" date.

Start ....>All Programs, ....>Acccessroies..> System Tools..> System Restore. Pick a date before this happened.

Formula Jr
05-24-2005, 12:58 PM
Scott, there's nasties lurking around System X also.........

Too bad we don't have a penguin emoticon. :lobster:

MrsDigger
05-24-2005, 01:16 PM
When I had issues similar to that, it turned out to be ... my monitor.

McGary911
05-25-2005, 11:48 AM
When I had issues similar to that, it turned out to be ... my monitor.

When I had issues similar to that, it turned out to be all the beer that I drank :biggrin.::beer::cistineb::beer:

Fish boy
05-25-2005, 03:39 PM
hey everyone, thanks for the replies, suggestions and emails- I really appreciate it. Still not quite sure what caused it, but somehow the entire contents of my font folder was deleted. While any alpha or numeric character now has a symbol, it does not translate to wingdings, it just looks like it- fun trying to figure out what is what :eek:

I copied the font folder from another computer and pasted it in the windows font folder. I at least have text now and am going to start backing up my stuff after spyware and virus scans. Going to try to fix it after I am sure I have my files backed up.

The pic below is an email... everything from my password screen, to program files, word documents....everything looked like this. Doh!!! :eek:

Thanks again for all the help, you guys and girls rock!!

fish

MrsDigger
05-25-2005, 04:03 PM
When I had issues similar to that, it turned out to be all the beer that I drank :biggrin.::beer::cistineb::beer:

Hmmm, maybe I just drank wine through a straw too quickly...or maybe the screen would have straightened itself out if I had closed my left eye instead of my right....

txtaz
05-25-2005, 05:26 PM
Fish, Call me. It's your themes. They need to be set to a font in that directory.
Wes
We will be out tonight, Dave N Busters....Woooohoooo, time to get my azz spanked at skeeball

Fish boy
05-25-2005, 05:30 PM
thanks Wes, I will call you tomorrow i fit is ok with you. I did check the properties first though by right clicking the desk to and going all through that. I tried to change the font for particular parts of the computer, but there were no fonts to change them to in the drop down menu. If I remeber correctly, I think my choices were default and system, neither of which helped much. Then again, I really have absolutely no idea what I am talking about and have yet to stay in a holiday inn express! LOL Thanks, looking forward to talking to you.

fish

txtaz
05-25-2005, 11:09 PM
Fish, Call early if you can. I'm up at 4 am, so whenever is good for you is fine for me. I need to get the boat back to storage since we have weather coming in. I will leave out of here about 9am, 10 your time and be back by lunch. As Poodle says, I drive slow... ROFL Actually it's a 2 hour trip to put the boat away. I know, I know but it's safe out there.

Wes

MrsDigger
05-25-2005, 11:47 PM
If you go to the fonts folder and double click on each of the font files, it should re-install them.