CSS issues, multiple browsers tested

[Hoopensnooper]

I've been having a problem for several days now with several websites not loading properly - research has led me to believe that it is a CSS issue. This thread from back in 2008 describes my problem almost exactly - facebook, twitter, some of the motorcycle forums my husband visits - none load properly in Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Chrome (all using current builds). The problem seems to be only on this PC - laptops, netbooks and Ipods all display the sites properly. All computers/devices in the house connect to the router through a wireless modem. I have tried resetting the router and the modem, connecting directly to the modem (bypassing the router) - nothing seems to make these pages display correctly. Starting windows in safe mode "cures" the problem - the misbehaving sites all display properly in all 3 browsers.

Can anyone provide a fix for this? If there's something running in the background, how would I find it?

Windows Vista Home Premium, SP2
Firefox 3.6.13
IE 7.0.6002.1805
Chrome 8.0.552.337

 

[Trotter]

The easiest way would be to use CCleaner to do it. While you could use MSCONFIG, CCleaner is just an awesome program to have by itself and this is just one of its uses.

Download and install CCleaner, then launch it. Click "Tols" on the left side, then click "Startup". The list it pulls up is everything that can be set to start when Windows does. Everything that says "Yes" beside it is doing just that... launching when Windows does. You can disable almost all of them; leave anything about his antivirus, firewall, or anything he needs/uses (I have my AV, RocketDock, Yahoo Widgets, CursorFX, and some others launch as I use/want them). When you are finished, reboot. Try and see if it was a program you disabled that was causing the problem.

 

[Hoopensnooper]

Thanks, I'll give CCleaner a try!

Edited to add: Whatever was wrong seems to have fixed itself, before I could run Ccleaner. I did run it anyway and it didn't show anything that wasn't supposed to be there. I did clean up my registry though, so thanks! My registry cleaner was apparently leaving stuff behind...

If anyone comes up with a cause/solution for this to happen, I would like to know, just in case my computer decides to "unfix" itself.

Thanks for your help Trotter!

 

[Baez]

Don't bother purchasing a registry cleaner. CCleaner does a better job than any of them.

If it happens again try installing Opera and don't import any settings from the other browsers. Opera uses a different page rendering engine and I have a hunch it might have something to do with that.