Web pages on the computer do not render correctly – instead of displaying the page in the correct colours it only has black and white graphics together with the headings in black outline. This also results in some of the text on the page overlapping making it very difficult to read. How can I fix this problem?

Without having more specific information on the computer (e.g. operating system, such as Windows XP) and the internet browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, etc) it will be difficult to determine the root cause of the problem and how it can be fixed. That said, we can try some basic troubleshooting steps to narrow down the problem. First, I will assume that you are running a Windows based computer and using Internet Explorer as your browser. This is the best assumption since Internet Explorer comes installed by default on all Windows-based computers. You should make sure that the computer is running the latest version of Internet Explorer with all the relevant updates. If your computer is running Windows Vista or 7 then you should be able to download and install Internet Explorer 9, the latest and greatest version of the browser which was only released on 14 March 2011 (so it is still quite new). Since Windows Update is built into the operating system in Windows Vista and 7 you will be prompted about whether you wish to download and install Internet Explorer 9, to which I suggest that you agree so that you can obtain the update. If your computer is running Windows XP then you will only be able to use Internet Explorer 8 (as Internet Explorer 9 is not supported on Windows XP). However, you should still update the computer to ensure that you do have this version of Internet Explorer installed together with the latest updates. In Windows XP you can visit the Windows Update
(windowsupdate.microsoft.com) to scan the computer and identify then download and install any required updates.

Once you have confirmed that the computer is running the latest version of Internet Explorer check whether the problem continues. If so, we should next look at resetting Internet Explorer to the default settings. It is possible that Internet Explorer has been configured in a particular mode (such as a high contrast or high visibility mode) which causes the web pages to be rendered differently than expected. In Internet Explorer, go to the “Tools” menu (if this is not visible press the ALT key to show the menu bar) and then select “Internet Options”. In the Internet Options window, click the “Advanced” tab. At the bottom of the window you should see a “Reset” button. Click the button and then carefully read the warning that appears, including the information under “Delete personal settings” (as we will be ticking this box). If you need to backup or write down any settings or other information before the reset procedure then you should do that right now, otherwise the information will be lost. Assuming that you have taken any required precautions and wish to proceed tick the “Delete personal settings” box and then click the “Reset” button. Once the reset has completed (which may take a few minutes) restart Internet Explorer and check whether the situation has improved.

If the problem has not been resolved then this will likely be a tricker problem to solve since it does not appear to be related to the version of Internet Explorer (as we have updated this to the latest available version) nor the configuration or settings (since those were reset to their defaults). In this situation I will need more information about your particular setup to provide a more definitive solution to the problem, so if you could please contact me again with information about the version of Windows running on the computer together with the version of Internet Explorer (which can be found by going into the Internet Explorer “Help” menu > “About Internet Explorer”) this will allow me to research the problem more thoroughly and hopefully provide some specific suggestions.

In the meantime, a possible workaround for the problem is to use a different internet browser. In case you are not aware, Internet Explorer is just one available browser (albeit a fairly well-known and well-used browser, since it is included with the installation of Windows). However, there are several other browsers also available. I would suggest that you consider either Mozilla Firefox (www.firefox.com) or Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome). These two browsers each use a different web page rendering engine to Internet Explorer, meaning that if the problem is related to some corruption within the engine which renders web pages within Internet Explorer then Firefox and Chrome should not be affected since they use different, independent engines to render the web pages. Additionally, the first time that you start either of these browsers you should be prompted as to whether you wish to import your Favourites and other settings from Internet Explorer, making the transition to these different browsers a bit more seamless. Even though this does not resolve the actual problem it will hopefully provide a workaround so that you can at least use the internet while Internet Explorer is in the process of being fixed.