Avatars not showing?

[Calum]

None of the avatars here at CH are showing for me.
When I load a page they are shown briefly but disappear when the page has finished loading.
I have tried another SMF forum and have no issues there, nor any other computer issues.
Happens to me in both IE7 and Firefox 2 exactly the same.
I've cleared my caches and also rebooted but neither has shown a change.
Anyone else having issues?
Or does anyone have any ideas to fix this?

[homer]

CH is working fine for me. maybe its just a momentary thing?

[Calum]

Been going on all day here.
I know sometimes CH is a little slow and some people don't see images, or the page doesn't load, but this seems different.
The pages are loading quickly as usual for me, it's just the avatars that are missing.

[homer]

weird. as a last ditch attempt have you changed your IP?

[Calum]

I have changed my IP now by resetting my router (dynamic IP).
Still no difference though, no avatars once the page has loaded.

[homer]

im all out of ideas. you have done exactly what i would have done and it still doesnt work. are you 100% sure that your IP has been changed?

[Calum]

I am 100% sure, without doubt.
I've also checked my Adblock Plus filters and Firefox's list of images not to load, CH isn't there (a futile exercise anyway as it happens with IE, but hey, worth a shot).
I just tried a proxy too with no luck.

[Zylstra]

Did you try logging in, then back out?

Did you clear your browser cache?

If so, then try this:
Go to your Profile
Click (on the left toolbar) "Look and Layout Preferences"
Make sure "Don't show users' avatars." is not selected. Click "Change Profile" if you change anything.

If its already not selected, then try selecting it, click "Change Profile", and then unselect it, and click "Change Profile" again.

I have had problems with Avatars not fully loading on CH, but, never ones that just dont show up. All is well on my end.

[Calum]

Have tried logging in and out before, and also changing the avatar setting, saving, and cahnging it back.
Browser caches have been cleared too.
Still suffering.

[Zylstra]

Okay, next, you need to determine if its a problem with your account, or a problem with your computer.

Have you tried logging in on another computer, or at the very least, using a secured and trusted proxy?
Does the problem still occur?

[Calum]

I've tried a proxy with no change but not another machine yet.
I'll try one tomorrow at college.
Seems odd that it suddenly stopped loading avatars properly though.

[Zylstra]

I've tried a proxy with no change but not another machine yet.
I'll try one tomorrow at college.
Seems odd that it suddenly stopped loading avatars properly though.

If it doesnt work on the college computers, then its definitely an account based error. You might have to poke the admin to run maintenance tools, and if that doesnt work, your account may have to be reset completely. (Post count written down, account deleted by the administrator, and then reinstated with same post count and privileges)

[Calum]

Tried another PC and it does seem to be working now.
Had a scary moment when I still saw no avatars but I think the users just didn't have them, I can see them properly now.
Edit: some images are not showing.  Carbon Dudeoxide's signature, Ef's signature, and certain avatars.  However, I can't be sure if this is because of the college filtering or something else.
I'll test again on the family's computer when I get home.

[Calum]

OK, on another computer all seems fine.
Bah, I guess it's my computer acting up then, just when I thought I had it all made.
Any ideas for what's up?

Edit: seems that SiteAdvisor has some issues too, the images on the popup don't load and it's sort of transparent.
Image attached to show what I mean.

[recovering disk space -- attachment deleted by admin]

[Zylstra]

I would try uninstalling and reinstalling McAfee Site Adviser, as well as any other browser addons that are installed in both IE7 and FireFox.

If you are using a program such as HOSTS Secure, try unlocking the host file, and then updating, and locking again.

[Calum]

I'll try that when I get home.
I'm not using HOSTS secure but I am using Spybot's HOSTS protection, plus some of my own.  I'll try unlocking the file later too.
Also I'll create a test account to see if that helps at all, it may be an account issue after all.  It's worth eliminating anyhow.

[street1 (RIP)]

My avatar would not show today 16 June 2008 either. Same odd
problem.

[Calum]

Have uninstalled and reinstalled Siteadvisor, no change whatsoever.
Unlocking and removing the extra entries in the hosts file did nothing.
Just about to create a test account to see if that helps. test account made no difference either.
It must be a computer issue but I don't know what, it seems very odd that such a specific function would be affected.

[Computer Hope Admin]

As far as I can tell on my (Computer Hope forums) end everything is working fine. So definately something going on on the computers end. Everything I could think to suggest has already been attempted. I find it real strange that this issue would be occurring in multiple browsers too.

[Calum]

It's also not hardware, I dual boot and the other boot has no issues.
Ah well, I've run into issues with some games too, possibly some corrupted files on my other boot.
I think it's time to reformat for about the 20th time in the last month.
Thanks for all the help anyway guys, it's much appreciated.
These things are sent to try us.

[Computer Hope Admin]

May want to try uninstalling any add-ons installed in both browsers. Although not very likely the only other thought I could think of is that maybe it's a virus protection program, malware program, or firewall installed that's causing the problem.

Because it's happening in multiple browsers, it's got to be something else you've installed into the computer that's causing the issue.

[Calum]

I agree it has to be a program installed.
I've ruled out addons as I have nothing installed in IE other than the Windows Update ActiveX, which I hardly see interfering with images on this specific board.
I'm using Spybot and Spyware Blaster for malware protection, have disabled both their protection temporarily with no change.
The hardware firewall is causing no issues either.
I wish I could pinpoint the exact time when this started - I know I could see avatars with this install, but I'm not sure when I stopped seeing them.  I thought it was a temporary glitch as the forum was going pretty slow at that point anyway.
There's nothing installed that could possibly be causing this as far as I know.
It's just such a weird problem, especially as it only happens on CH, nowhere else.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Just to re-clarify for my sake, this is happening on all images, including those hosted on Computer Hope, e.g. the image you're using now for your avatar.

Can you view it outside the left bar, e.g the below example of your avatar.

[Calum]

This is only happening on CH with avatars - everyone's avatars.  They appear for a split second and then disappear.
On my profile if I go to edit it, I can view my avatar next to the radio box marked "I will upload my own picture" but nowhere else at all.
The mini profiles next to the posts are collapsed around the missing avatar, I don't see an "image missing" box or anything.
I can see other images here for example signatures, attachments, the image of my avatar in the previous post.
Some other web pages do in fact have missing images too but this is at random.  The only one that comes to mind isn't a site I'd post here as it is illegal, but it's purely for research purposes, not for my own use.  There however the image is missing but the site is not collapsed around it, presumably because of the height and width attributes.  I do see the image on this site if I right click where it should be, copy the location, and paste into my address bar.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Well after some additional thinking. It could be possible somethings up with JavaScript. Although that is part of the browsers. The avatar images are resized in JavaScript to keep all the avatars the same. Do you have JavaScript disabled?

[Calum]

Although I do have Noscript installed, JavaScript and other scripts are allowed for CH.
I've checked my settings and also uninstalled Noscript, but that made no difference either.
That's an interesting idea though.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Hmm that's the only unique thing I could come up with that is different between the avatar images and the images displayed in the profiles is that the images are being resized to 65x65 in Javascript to help keep the forums looking pretty.

[street1 (RIP)]

Go to www.java.com and click on "Do I have Java?"
Click on "Verify Java Version ".

If you have the most up-to-date version of Java, you
should be okay. If not, click "Download Now".

[Computer Hope Admin]

Java and JavaScript are two different animals and installing the latest version of Java would not help in this situation.

If you're interested in seeing what version of JavaScript and Java you have installed and is detected by the browser I'd recommend: http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/systeminfo.cgi (shameless plug )

[Broni]

Calum...
Did you try Start>All Programs>Mozilla Firefox>Mozilla Firefox (safe mode)?

[street1 (RIP)]

Java and JavaScript are two different animals and installing the latest version of Java would not help in this situation.

If you're interested in seeing what version of JavaScript and Java you have installed and is detected by the browser I'd recommend: http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/systeminfo.cgi (shameless plug )

Good link Nathan.I haven't seen that before.(shame on me. 

[patio]

Java and JavaScript are two different animals and installing the latest version of Java would not help in this situation.

If you're interested in seeing what version of JavaScript and Java you have installed and is detected by the browser I'd recommend: http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/systeminfo.cgi (shameless plug )

Good link Nathan.I haven't seen that before.(shame on me. 

That's why it's called a shameless plug...

[Zylstra]

Is this problem happening on other images at all?
Best way to test:
Google image search, and go through a few pages.

If its happening there, it could be a problem with your ISP, Ethernet card, router, or modem. It might just be cutting off things... which, is very possible (Though definitely not good)

[Calum]

I appear to have JavaScript 1.7.
Almost all images are showing - I went through 3 pages of a random Google image search and 2 were missing.  unsure if they're dead links or it's my PC at fault.
Firefox's Safe Mode didn't help me, but a good try.
As the other PC on the network works fine, as does another version of Windows I have installed on this PC, I think the issue is actually with this install of Windows, rather than my hardware, ISP or router.

[Calum]

I don't believe this . . . I had a thought last night while thinking about something completely different and it paid off.
I'd been messing with Firefox settings and had changed something I shouldn't have changed.
Namely in about:config, I changed dom.disable_img_src_set to True from False, in an attempt to do something entirely different.
That's what's been causing my issues.  And I guess I haven't seen this on the other SMF forums I visit because they use another method of resizing avatars rather than JavaScript.
I can't believe I've overlooked this.
Thanks for all the help and sorry for wasting all this time.

[Broni]

Wow! Great job, man!

[Computer Hope Admin]

That is good news. But if that's what solved it, why would IE also be having the same issue?

[Calum]

That's puzzling me too actually.
IE7 shows the avatars too now, which is really odd.

[street1 (RIP)]

That's puzzling me too actually.
IE7 shows the avatars too now, which is really odd.

Calum read my reply # 16. I had the problem temporarily.