A few months ago the Facebook page stopped displaying properly on my computer in Firefox and Internet Explorer. At the time I do not recall installing anything new on the computer or changing any configuration settings, although I may have done so and cannot recall. Now, the Facebook page displays with headings along the left-hand side and only a few photos appear. So it seems that the computer is not rendering the Facebook page correctly. No other websites are displayed improperly and all other computers on the network can display the Facebook page normally. Deleting the temporary internet files and history have not resolved the problem. The computer is running Windows Vista.

Since the problem does not occur for other computers on the same network we can assume that the network itself is fine and does not have any problems communicating with the Facebook server, or corrupting information between the Facebook server and your network. Additionally, because the problem does not occur for any other websites on that computer we can also assume that the web browser is functioning correctly (for the most part). This is also confirmed by the fact that the problem occurs in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. These are two completely separate web browsers which use different rendering engines for web pages, so if the same problem occurs across both web browsers then this indicates that something is likely wrong with the computer itself, resulting in both web browsers rending the web page incorrectly, rather than something wrong with the browsers themselves.

The most common possibility is that the computer has some malware which is preventing the Facebook page from correctly displaying. Why the malware would want to accomplish this goal is anyone’s guess, but since the problem specifically affects the Facebook website on that particular computer then this is a reasonable conclusion to draw as the root cause. As such, I first suggest that you update the virus definition files for the virus scanner on your computer and then complete a full scan of the computer for viruses. Once that has completed and removed any identified threats you should then complete an anti-malware scan on the computer. Download and install Ad-Aware Free (www.lavasoft.de), Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org), and Windows Defender (www.microsoft.com/downloads). After these have been downloaded, install the first utility and then complete a scan of the computer. On completion of the scan (and removed any identified threats) restart the computer and complete the scan again. Repeat this procedure until either no new threats are detected, or the detected threats cannot be removed. Then, install and scan the computer using the next utility. The net result is that at least one of the utilities should be able to remove each threat, giving your computer a relatively clean bill of health once this process has completed.

However, if you find that the problem continues after scanning and removing any malware threats from the computer then there could be something wrong with the Windows system files themselves. In this situation you should try running the Windows System File Checker (SFC) utility. This will scan the Windows system for any missing or corrupt files and replace these with known good copies. Go to the “Start” menu > “All Programs” > “Accessories”. Right-click on “Command Prompt” then select “Run as Administrator”. In the User Access Control window that appears, click “Continue” at the command prompt window which should appear. At the command prompt type:
sfc /scannow
and then press ENTER. Make sure you mind the space between the “sfc” and “/scannow” portions of the command. During the SFC procedure you may be prompted for the Windows XP CD, so make sure you have that CD handy. Once the SFC utility has completed its operation it will exit silently with no user feedback. Now restart the computer and check whether the problem continues. In the case where the problem is not resolved, please contact me again for further advice.