Computer newbies forum: My images show up distorted, what's wrong?

If this is a gradual process you have just noticed, it could well be a problem of magnetic flux that interferes with color and image focus. If yours is an LCD, this does not apply. If a CRT, it may have a "degause" function. Many do this when the monitor is turned on or off. Your monitor may have other features to tune it. Mention the brand and model and someone out there may have one of these. If this has been ruled out, it could be a cable or other hardware connection problem. You can reseat cables to try. Maybe explaining a little bit more about what you see in the way of distortion might help too. Good luck.

First, there may be an updated video driver for your Dell Dimension 4100 which might fix the issue. You'll need to identify your particular graphics card in the "Device Manager"(RIGHT click on "My Computer", choose "Properties". When that loads, click on the "Device Manager" tab, then scroll down and click on the + sign next to the "Display Adapters" listing. A specific device will be listed that you'll need to identify by clicking on the specific device ONCE to highlight it, then click on the "Properties" button.) and once that is done, you can download the driver for your particular card at the link below:

Dell Dimension 4100 Video Drivers

Next, because it might be a problem with the monitor itself, borrow a monitor from a friend and swap it for your current one. See if the problem is fixed. Monitors can simply go bad and you may need a new one.

1. I think you'll really enjoy having this freeware, "IrfanView", a fast image viewer/converter for Win95/98/NT.

2. Some features of IrfanView are:

Thumbnail option, preview option, drag & drop support, slideshow, fast directory view (fast moving through directory), batch conversion, audio CD player, print option, change color depth, scan support, cut/crop, effects (sharpen, blur, photoshop filter factory etc.), capturing, extract icons from EXE/DLLs, many hotkeys ...

3. By default, images are saved in Microsoft Internet Explorer as bitmap images (.bmp) and there is no option to save an extension other than .bmp. This behavior may be experenced even when an image being saved uses a different format (such as .gif or .jpeg). For example, right-clicking an image on a Web page and then clicking Save Picture As, the file name that appears in the File name box is Untitled and the file type that appears in the Save as type box is Bitmap (*.bmp). This behavior may occur, [Q810978]:

a. If a damaged program file (for example, an ActiveX or Java object) is downloaded to the SystemRoot\Downloaded Program Files folder.
==and/or==
b. The contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder have not been purged recently, (Tools, Internet Options, and in the section titled Temporary Internet files, Delete Files...).

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I thank you and everyone for your help. I am pretty overwhelmed right now, but I am going to try to digest all this information all of you gave me for a day or two, and work on it. All I do know, is that somehow the gif and jpg formats disappeared from my choices when I go to download a picture to my own files, and PNG has taken their place, and I never did anything anywher to change that. I don't understand WHERE to go to be able to download these graphics as gif's or jpeg's, as the artists formatted them originally. Why did this happen out of the blue? Thanks again everyone for trying to help me, I really do appreciate your efforts.
Sincerely,
snowflakeinpa

Thanks for your info too Papa Echo!! The problem happened suddenly. I really feel that the problem is what format of graphics I am viewing, but I have no idea where to go to change it so it will display the images/graphics in their original formats. Does this mean that something is going wrong with my computer? I also meant to mention that the pixels in the images or graphics, look smeared, so that's why I think I am viewing and having to save them as PNG's. I am at a total loss, so ANY help would be appreciated.
snowflakeinpa

My computer has been doing the same things. I can see on my pictures on my computer fine. If have them in my photo file (not online) they look fine. All our games look fine on and off line. It's just the images on websites. They look horrible. I don't know what happened. It's on IE and Firefox. The only difference between the two is if I'm on IE i can right click them and clear them all up by clicking. (Display all images full quality) it does it on that page but when i leave that page they are not full quality) Firefox doesn't have that at all so there is no way to clear them up. It did it all of a sudden. Today is the 30th and it all started on the 20th. Right out of no where. I don't see anything i have changed on my computer. AUGH! i may have to just restore it to see if that helps. But i hate doing that and the last time i did that i wouldn't do it. Oh well any advice or anything you learn from your computer geek please forward on. I can't afford to have someone fix it. I don't have the money at all.