Strange Internet Explorer Bug - Will Not Display .gif !

[Zenon]

I've looked all over, forums, IRC, Microsoft employees, Google... still can't find out how to fix this or what broke it in the first place. Internet Explorer refuses to display .gif images on webpages. Generally they are marked by the notorious red "X", but occasionally if the .gif is small, there's just an indented outline of where the picture should be. Right clicking > Show Picture will display the images. I'm really confused as to what this could be at this point. I'm coming here in hopes that someone has had a similar problem and figured out the fix. I've tried switching Encoding, which generally does display the images, but it doesn't matter what Encoding I use, they will all load the pictures if I switch to one manually. This is not a permanent fix, as soon as I change websites it's broken again, no matter which I keep it on. I've tried reinstalling IE6, XP Service Pack 1, Photoshop...

Hope someone can figure this out. Thanks in advance guys!

 

[CompKidRRO]

Tools>Internet Options>Advanced>Show pictures.

 

[Zenon]

I said .gifs, not all pictures.

 

[Zenon]

Someone has to know.

 

[dejitaru]

GIFs are for losers. PNG it up.
I would guess that the GIFs are corrupted. This is on all sites? Have you updated your Explorer app? When did this start happening?

 

[Zenon]

Yup all sites. Update my Explorer app? Not sure what you mean here... all updates are applied from WU though. It started a few months ago, unfortunately I can't pinpoint it but this was a fresh install. :/

 

[Aves]

It's not just you but it's not everyone either. There is no known 'cause or fix for it as of yet.

It seems to affect random people running IE6 SP1, including me.

 

[GhettoFob]

Do you have an ATI card or an AMD processor? I remember some problem about pictures in IE from a while back.

 

[Zenon]

Nope, Intel (P4) and Nvidia (Ti4600) currently.

 

[kranky]

Do you use Norton Internet Security? Try disabling it and see if that fixes it.

 

[Zenon]

Nope I forgot to add I searched the Microsoft support site too. I don't have any Symantec apps installed.

 

[BlindSight]

My guess is that some application has taken over the GIF extensions. I remember when I installed Fireworks it took over my PNGs and I had the same exact problem you are describing. When you double click on a GIF locally, which application opens up the picture?

 

[Confused]

There seems to be a known bug with this...there is a Microsoft patch available I think...or you could do what I did, and start to use a better browser, such as Mozilla or Phoenix (a slightly cut down version of Mozilla, what I'm using). Once you get away from IE, you'll never want to go back.


Confused

 

[Keysplayr]

Did you try to lower your security setting under "Internet Options"?
Keys

 

[Zenon]

Yep, messed with Security options... Currently my association for .gifs is the typical Windows Picture and Fax viewer, I've switched it to IE before but all it does is use IE as the main .gif display application, didn't seem to help at all in displaying .gifs on websites.

Edit: Confused, I'm currently trying out Opera 7.02 and I admit, I am very surprised by this browsers performance. It seems especially fast when resource intensive applications are running at the same time, IE generally struggles to load a page while Opera rips through them as if it were the only application running. I'd be more inclined to give Phoenix a try over Mozilla, just because I'm not a big fan of Mozilla to begin with, but I'd agree that the Mozilla browser engine appears much less "abrasive" than Opera. I just wish it were as fast! At least it's faster than IE. (Oh yeah, and .gifs work in both of those, but don't stop giving advice, I gotta fix it!)

 

[Zenon]

Sorry guys.

*shameless bump*

 

[BlindSight]

When I had problems with my PNGs, all I had to do was run a repair on IE by going to ADD\REMOVE. Since you are probably on WinXP though, you aren't going to have that option. Here is a link to do a manual repair on Windows XP:

Repair IE6 on Windows XP

You did say that you tried to reinstall IE6 to no avail so I don't know if this is going to help. Worth a try though.

Another thing to check, open up your registry and look in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Accepted Documents

Check and see if image/gif is listed. Your MIME types might have been changed somehow.

 

[Zenon]

Ok... I checked the registry and did have an entry in that location for image/gif. I ran the System File Checker and I assume everything was fine as after it was done, it just disappeared. As for the ie.inf, it's asking me for the XP Service Pack 1 CD and I have nothing to point it to. *beats head against monitor*

 

[Zenon]

Wow... Weird. Not sure if sfc did this or not, but when I booted my PC up this morning it looked like it was in Safe Mode... I had to reinstall my video drivers.

 

[Zenon]

Ah well, guess I didn't expect to get this fixed anyways, but I had hoped that the people at this forum might have some more ideas for me. Thanks for trying everyone!