NT4 server - radio buttons and check boxes are screwed up

[NT Guy]

I've got a machine running NT4 server (don't know if it's "server" or
"terminal server" or any other server flavor). The setup dates back to
1996 - 1999 time frame. At some point that I don't know exactly when
(pre 2003 is all I remember) it developed a problem where radio buttons
and check-boxes that appear on or within any configuration screen are
not rendered properly - to the point where it's hard to tell when a
button has been selected or a box has been checked.

I've re-applied the SP6a service pack, re-installed IE6-sp1, and have
tried to re-install the video driver. So far none of that has fixed this
problem.

What part of the system contains the API for these controls? What do I
need to re-install to bring these controls back to normal?

Is this a directx issue? Fonts? Video driver? IE? Registry problem?

[Dave Patrick]

Not much to go on here but probably the graphics adapter. Also try F8 at
startup and "Enable VGA Mode"
--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

Post by NT Guy
I've got a machine running NT4 server (don't know if it's "server" or
"terminal server" or any other server flavor). The setup dates back to
1996 - 1999 time frame. At some point that I don't know exactly when
(pre 2003 is all I remember) it developed a problem where radio buttons
and check-boxes that appear on or within any configuration screen are
not rendered properly - to the point where it's hard to tell when a
button has been selected or a box has been checked.
I've re-applied the SP6a service pack, re-installed IE6-sp1, and have
tried to re-install the video driver. So far none of that has fixed this
problem.
What part of the system contains the API for these controls? What do I
need to re-install to bring these controls back to normal?
Is this a directx issue? Fonts? Video driver? IE? Registry problem?

[Ben Myers]

Post by NT Guy
I've got a machine running NT4 server (don't know if it's "server" or
"terminal server" or any other server flavor). The setup dates back to
1996 - 1999 time frame. At some point that I don't know exactly when
(pre 2003 is all I remember) it developed a problem where radio buttons
and check-boxes that appear on or within any configuration screen are
not rendered properly - to the point where it's hard to tell when a
button has been selected or a box has been checked.
I've re-applied the SP6a service pack, re-installed IE6-sp1, and have
tried to re-install the video driver. So far none of that has fixed this
problem.
What part of the system contains the API for these controls? What do I
need to re-install to bring these controls back to normal?
Is this a directx issue? Fonts? Video driver? IE? Registry problem?

Try a fresh copy of "c:\winnt\fonts\symbol.ttf". You may have to restart the
computer for the change to take effect.

Ben

[NTGuy]

Post by Ben Myers

radio buttons and check-boxes are screwed up

Try a fresh copy of "c:\winnt\fonts\symbol.ttf". You may have
to restart the computer for the change to take effect.

There was another suggestion (in another forum) that the problem is (or
could be) with the Marlett font, as indicated here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/134861

Which primarily recommends replacement of the file, and which goes on to
say:

----------
If after replacing the Marlett.ttf file numbers or garbled characters
still appear in place of controls, try deleting the Ttfcache file in the
Windows folder. This file is rebuilt automatically when you restart the
computer. Problems with the Marlett.ttf file can also be caused by
exceeding, or approaching, the approximate limitation of 1000 fonts.

If this does not work, verify that the Hidden attribute is set for the
Marlett.ttf font file.
---------

The article states that it applies only to Windows 95, but seems to
describe exactly the problem I'm seeing on this NT4 system.

I'm aware that win-9x systems have problems with lots of installed
fonts, but have no idea if NT4 is similarly impacted. I find it curious
that the Marlett.ttf file might have to be set to hidden as part of a
solution (why would that be?)

[Ben Myers]

Post by NTGuy

Post by Ben Myers

radio buttons and check-boxes are screwed up

Try a fresh copy of "c:\winnt\fonts\symbol.ttf". You may have
to restart the computer for the change to take effect.

There was another suggestion (in another forum) that the problem is (or
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/134861
Which primarily recommends replacement of the file, and which goes on to
If after replacing the Marlett.ttf file numbers or garbled characters
still appear in place of controls, try deleting the Ttfcache file in the
Windows folder. This file is rebuilt automatically when you restart the
computer. Problems with the Marlett.ttf file can also be caused by
exceeding, or approaching, the approximate limitation of 1000 fonts.
If this does not work, verify that the Hidden attribute is set for the
Marlett.ttf font file.
The article states that it applies only to Windows 95, but seems to
describe exactly the problem I'm seeing on this NT4 system.
I'm aware that win-9x systems have problems with lots of installed
fonts, but have no idea if NT4 is similarly impacted. I find it curious
that the Marlett.ttf file might have to be set to hidden as part of a
solution (why would that be?)

I was able to replicate the problem on one of my dual boot systems by renaming
the fonts folder in DOS, then starting NT4. Restoring the marlett font did
nothing, even after a reboot, but simply copying the "symbol.ttf" file back to the
fonts folder immediately resolved the problem. I didn't bother with the
hidden attribute and don't know why it may be necessary. You might want
to make of copy of the existing "symbol.ttf" file, if it exists.

Ben

[NT Guy]

Post by Ben Myers

Post by Ben Myers

radio buttons and check-boxes are screwed up

Try a fresh copy of "c:\winnt\fonts\symbol.ttf". You may have
to restart the computer for the change to take effect.

There was another suggestion that the problem is with the
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/134861

I was able to replicate the problem on one of my dual boot systems
by renaming the fonts folder in DOS, then starting NT4. Restoring
the marlett font did nothing, even after a reboot, but simply
copying the "symbol.ttf" file back to the fonts folder immediately
resolved the problem.

Interesting.

I'll be trying these fixes later today.

A few searches looking for a connection between symbol.ttf and screwed
up window controls turns up no hits.

[NT Guy]

I removed the hard drive in this NT4 system and slaved it as a secondary
drive to an XP-sp2 system.

To get into the c:\winnt directory of the NT4 drive, I had to give
myself the permission to do that on that folder.

The fonts directory on the drive did contain various marlett*.ttf and
symbol*.ttf and symbol*.fon files, so nothing seemed to be wrong.

I ran several XP drive-maintainance tools on the drive - check for
errors (none found) and defragged the drive.

I then copied several .fon and .ttf files from my win-98se system to the
NT4 drive (not to the fonts folder) in preparation of adding them to the
fonts inventory when the NT4 system was back up and running. There were
about 6 or 7 files (symbol*.* and marlett*.*) that were exact matches
(using file compare) between my win-98 system and this NT4 system.
There might have been 1 or 2 files that existed on one system but not
the other.

But when I got the NT4 system back up and running - the problem with the
window controls not being rendered properly was gone. I hadn't (yet)
changed anything in the fonts directory.

Strange

[Calvin]

Hi NTGuy,

There are the odd occasions when Windows will do REALLY strange things
like this. In the NT4 and below era such events were FAIRLY infrequent,
but I've never been 100% confident that any MS code is bugfree.

When machines do weird things like this - and on the later OSes (XP and
above it is quite frequently) I simply say to my clients: "It's Windows,
you actually EXPECT it to work properly ??"

Calvin.