CSS not loading in FF2.0, IE6 or IE7 on client's machine

Hello everyone,

I have a client who is not able to view any web pages that use CSS. I have tried on FF2.0, IE 6&7. I have scrubbed the machine with ad-aware, spybot, hijackthis, and have performed a boot scan with avast, all scrubs run with all updates and in safe mode.

She has no software firewall aside from the native XP one, and she has no hardware one. Both java and javascript were allowed in all browsers, and this is affecting all web sites. She realized that she had reduced viewability when she looked at her friend's myspace page and realized it was different at work than at home.

Java was un-installed and re-installed. She does not have no-script but that wouldn't affect the lack of functionality in IE 6 or 7. In IE there are no settings limiting the scripting (all scripting allowed temporarily during testing).

Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks heaps, and for those here in the US, Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Any other security software installed other than Avast? Or maybe a trial version of Panda or Norton's that has been removed?

Steve

 

No. I looked through all running processes, and startups in msconfig. I need to look again and make sure that any and all instances of McAfee or Norton were wholly and entirely removed.

Thanks, and if you can think of anything else, I would be very appreciative.

Cheers!

 

I would ask her if she has uninstalled any trial software like Symantec or Panda about that time. Or do a search for Symantec, VirusScan, Panda, Norton, McAfee, etc.

Steve

 

Also, zonealarm, has been known to block this function. Yes, I do know ZA is not on this machine.

Does css work, when in safemode with networking?

One thing to give a shot at trying.
Click START, then RUN, then type in msconfig (press enter).
Check the radial button "selective startup".
Unecheck the box "Load startup items."
Then click the services tab, check the box "Hide Microsoft services". Then click the button disable all, then ok, yes to reboot. Now, try to access a few css sites.

 

Thanks all, I will give that and some other ideas a try when and if I can get her to let me take her box. Will let you know how things go.

Cheers!

 

Happy New Year everyone who reads this. Hope the holidays were peaceful but just a slight bit gluttonous too!

OK. After finally getting her machine back this is what I have found out. To recap, she has a Dell Dimension 2400 XP Home SP2. At some point she realized that webpages on her own machine looked vastly different from others. It now seems that cascading style sheets are not being loaded in any browser under her login. I say under her login because I created a new user and that one has absolutely no issues with browsers not rendering css properly or any other scripting or plug-in.

When logged into her account Java and Javascript function perfectly as did all other plug-ins as I was able to run a bunch of tests on scripting and plug-ins. The css tests I found online (leap of faith there) failed. I downloaded a familiar page as a complete HTML file and opened it in Frontpage, which is all she has on her machine. The page renders fine in both the design and HTML tabs, but not in the preview tab.

To date I have run Spybot, ad-aware, a boot time scan with avast, hijackthis turned up nothing, kazaabegone removed a lot but still no change. I installed nod32, avg anti-malware, and advanced windows care personal. Ran them all. I installed IE7, un-installed it, "removed" IE6, reinstalled it, reinstalled IE7, un-installed FF, then installed v2.0.0.1. Installed CCleaner 1.36.430 and ran that, both the drive and the registry cleaner. This lack of functionality is universal to all browsers in her user account, but paradoxically non-existent for any other accounts. I also logged in as administrator in safe mode and that worked fine.

I went into msconfig and disabled all non-Microsoft services and start-up processes.

At this point I have the strong suspicion that something has been corrupted in her registry or docs and settings\application data that is not allowing any css definitions to load whatsoever. However I am at a loss as to where to look for something that is going to disable the rendering of css.

Again, the administrator and the test user accounts can all view pages normally.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks heaps!

 

Also un-installed and re-installed java just for fun.

 

Also disabled her MS firewall, and did not replace with another. No effect.

 

Also just installed html-kit to see what would happen, and the same behavior arose. No formatting of any images, text. Location for the most part is fine, but all else appears stripped of any formatting.