No text appearing in windows or on desktop.

[ExasperatedVulture]

That's basically it. I'm using Windows 7. There's no text appearing in various windows, and the desktop icons have no text below them. If I right click, then the thing that normally appears appears, except it's much thinner because there are no words in it. The symbol that appears beside "Personalize" is there, and some others, but no words. If I open task manager, it also appears blank (picture may be attached). I opened my anti-virus program, only to find that the "Do you give permission" thing that appears is blank, with some symbols and such on it (the yellow and blue shield, the blue help symbol, and the symbol of the program). Icons in folders also appear with no text below them.

I have Chrome open right now. Text appears normally when I search things and all that, but the text that normally appears next to favorite website icons is gone, and the text at the top of the window is gone too (pictures hopefully attached). I just now realized that those pictures CAN'T be attached, because when I open the thing to browse stuff to attach, there is no text (or icons). I can't search them by name, because the name doesn't appear under the file on the desktop, or at the top of the window when I open the picture.

So yeah, all the words are gone. I CANNOT update my video card driver. I recently had my computer fixed, and the problem was apparently that the most recent driver for my video card wasn't compatible with my screen. So the guy set it to an older one. It worked fine for several days. Then last night, my computer just froze. I tried to restart it a couple times, but the "Welcome" loading symbol kept freezing. I restarted it in safe mode, which I've never done before, and the Welcome icon froze again, but this time I spent a minute scolding the computer for breaking again for no reason despite all I've done for it. The Welcome icon unfroze, continued spinning, froze again for a short while, and spun again, and finally loaded everything up. I guessed at the time that I just needed to wait a few more seconds when I tried to restart it normally. I had assumed that it had just outright froze those times, since the icon was completely still for a long while.

Since the internet didn't work on safe mode, I restarted it normally, and sure enough, the Welcome icon froze, and sure enough, it unfroze after about a minute and continued loading. It loaded everything up and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I noticed there was no text, just icons. With a word document, the word document symbol appears normally, but with no text underneath it. No text at the top of windows. Can't use Windows Task Manager, because I can't see text in it. No text appearing in right click windows. So that's my situation.

[Allan]

I'd start by running full scans with both MalwareBytes and your installed anti virus app.

[ExasperatedVulture]

I'd start by running full scans with both MalwareBytes and your installed anti virus app.

MalwareBytes is the only thing I've used for anti-virus stuff for a while, and like I mentioned I can't seem to run it. The window that pops up lacks text.

[Allan]

MalwareBytes is not an anti virus app, so I'm guessing your system is infected. Please follow the instructions in the following link and post your logs in the thread you create (NOT in this thread):
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html

[ExasperatedVulture]

Well, I tried to click the link to download that anti virus thing, and it made Chrome go sort of light beige in the whole window. There was no text appearing at the top as usual, but now the whole page was blank (it was covered in a light beige color). I could minimize it by clicking the icon on the taskbar, but I couldn't exit it. I couldn't exit it by right clicking and selecting the exit option, because no text appear when I right click, just a blank window. I couldn't close it using Windows Task Manager, because that also appears blank. I couldn't change tabs in the window, because the whole window had gone beige. I ultimately restarted my computer, and everything went normally. The icons are there, but with no text beneath them. Nothing has changed from my earlier description.

I can't follow that link in any case. Like I said in the entire post, no text appears in windows. So even if I did download it, once I clicked it on my desktop to try to start it, a window with no text would appear.

[Allan]

I rarely suggest this, but you might want to consider a format and clean install. Be sure to install an anti virus app if and when you do that.

If you choose to do this, copy your critical data to an off-disc medium and be sure to scan them with an anti virus app before transferring them back to the new install.

[ExasperatedVulture]

I rarely suggest this, but you might want to consider a format and clean install. Be sure to install an anti virus app if and when you do that.

If you choose to do this, copy your critical data to an off-disc medium and be sure to scan them with an anti virus app before transferring them back to the new install.

I have no idea what that means or how to do it.

[Allan]

Do you have a Windows DVD? If not, does your system contain a recovery partition?

[ExasperatedVulture]

Do you have a Windows DVD? If not, does your system contain a recovery partition?

I have a second hard drive, and I think a Windows 8 DVD that hasn't been used. That was what I was planning on using if it couldn't be fixed. I don't think I have a Windows 7 DVD though, and I also don't know what a recovery partition is.

[Allan]

Post the make and model of your computer and we'll help you see if it ships with a recovery partition. If it does, and assuming it's still intact, you can restore the system to "factory shipped" state. If not, you can use that Windows 8 dvd. I'm logging off for the evening, but there are others around who will help. I'll check back in the morning.

[ExasperatedVulture]

I'm not sure of the make and model. I bought it from IBUYPOWER about two years ago with Windows 7 already installed.

[ExasperatedVulture]

Well.

I was just about ready to try using the Reinstall Windows disk that my PC shipped with, assuming this would delete my stuff. I searched my problem again, found one that's the exact same as mine, and looked at the suggestions. One of the suggestions was to do some sort of system restore thing using the command prompt. I couln't reach the command prompt because my windows were all blank. For no particular reason, I right clicked and hit the Personalize button (where the themes and such are).

After I got my computer back from the computer repair guy, my theme had changed. It was a very basic, square grey theme with a solid color background. When I had tried to change it back to my old theme, I saw that it was grayed out and unselectable. ALL of the "Aero themes" were unselectable. I assumed the old driver he had changed my computer to to fix it somehow couldn't run Aero themes.

Anyway, I hit the Personalize button, and to my surprise it wasn't blank, AND my old theme wasn't grayed out anymore. I selected it, it changed to it, and viola. Everything is suddenly fixed. The words are under icons. After closing and reopening Chrome, words appear one the tabs and beside the favorites now. Everything is perfect.

It should be noted that I believe when I restarted it after it froze, that was my first time restarting it since I got it back from the computer guy. So yeah, my problem's fixed. I right clicked, selected the Personalize icon, and clicked an old theme. I'll attach the pictures now, as well as one showing what it looks like now, just for reference. I don't know whether this should be marked as solved or not, so I guess I'll just not touch it.

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]

[Allan]

Okay, well - glad you're back in business. Thanks for the update.