STRANGE!! My display changes to Klingon - I don't speak it!

[Bill in SD, CA]

This happens at random times. could be a few hours, two days, or couple of weeks. Cruising along and all of a sudden WHAMMO the display changes from English to Klingon .... I think it's Klingon ...could be Romulan.

As it happens, when you move the mouse over anything normal it changes. Click on a menu ... English.... move the mouse..... Klingon. Getting this screen shot wasn't easy as you can imagine. Had to go back and forth between another computer to figure out where the commands were on the Klingon screen. Even the input of the file name was in Klingon.

On re-boot, everything retrurn to normal ... even the file name.

W2K, Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder, PIII 1.0 Ghz.

Fresh install of 2K by the way. No viruses ...no trojans. Happened on the previous install of 2K also. I've done nothing weird install wise. I even kept a log of everything I've done by date to keep track of my box.

06.22.03

intalled W2K
installed ATI drivers and progs with it
installed SoundBlaster Live 5.1
installed Netscape 7.02
installed MusicMatch
uninstalled MusicMatch from C:\
installed MusicMatch to D:\
installed winzip to D:\
installed kazaa lite to D:\Program Files
installed NS Works to D:\program files

Note ATI TV is crashing sys prior to NS works install

Downloaded and installed Acrobat reader.

Note Ran NS works and ATI stil crashing

Downloaded and installed 26 W2K updates

Updated ATI drivers and uninstalled ATI programs

Reinstalled updated ATI drivers and NEC monitor drivers
Reinstalled ATI programs - SUCCESS!!!

installed nero burning and packet software.
installed clickoff, simple ftp, and webfoot.
installed msconfig
installed psp 4.12
installed winroute
uninstalled psp 4.12
installed iespell

06.23.03

installed canon printer and software
installed hp scanner software - buttons not working?
installed hp scanjet
instaled ms office
installed psp 8.0

06.24.03

downloaded and installed updated ati driver from ms.
changed refresh rate to 75 from 60.

06.26.03
downloaded and installed clipomatic
downloaded and installed post it notes

07.01.03
downloaded and installed symantec redirect for NSW.

07.03.03
downloaded and installed google toolbar.

Bill

[tony_j15]

That is one of the weirdest things I have seen.

[sm8000]

Can you uninstall any language packs that may be there?

[Bill in SD, CA]

I don't have any language packs that I know of.

Bill

[sm8000]

Can you see any in Add/Remove Programs?

[Bill in SD, CA]

None.

Bill

[radman]

My, that is odd. You wouldn't have any Star Trek games installed on your system would you? Perhaps it was a bad copy of InstallSheild, started leaking data into other areas of your hard drive. Doubtful, but stranger things have happened y'know!

My 2 cents...
RadMan

[Peter M]

Looks like the card's RAM is busted, losing the character images soon after they're rendered. Does the card get appropriate power and cooling? (In an old P-III box, my first guess would be insufficient power to the AGP slot.)

If that's sorted, and still no go, you should return it for exchange.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Just happened again. See how the the items above the mouse are still in English. BTW, I do have 2 mice hooked up to the system. Maybe a random mouse driver conflict??

Radman, Thanks for nothing. At least your post count is growing. Keep up the good work!

PeterM,

I don't think cooling is a problem. The case cover has been off for months. I'll have to think about the power. I don't even know the rating of the PSU.

Bill

[Bob The Great]

have you tried changing the fonts to see if it does that on all of them? What does wingdings look like Perhaps if you download a Klingon font it will translate it to English when you go over it

seriously though I would try changing fonts and also messing with the visual effects to see if it will go away. I would think if it were video card issues you'd get more then just font corruptions.