Vista - Not thumbnails but... thin vertical lines? (Halp!)

"I’m having a problem with thumbnails not showing up... The thumbnails are just thin stripes as oppose[d] to actual, you know, thumbnail images."

That's the only reference I have managed to dig up so far in the wide world of the Web (from this page). The reply from the technical expert read, in part:

"Man... The problem you’re having sounds very strange.."

It appears I'm facing a problem that is so unusual, I could be a candidate for Ripley's Believe It or Not, if only Ripley's feature was still around. Maybe it is.

It's not that all of my image files refuse to show up as thumbnails. But a good too many appear as thin vertical lines, in their folders. (Yet they open up functionally in the usual applications). Ahhh, Vista, Vista, Vista.

So now you're getting the picture as to why I am reaching out to you, maybe a bit too embarrassingly. (How fast we can sink while desperate. It's not pretty.) If you know what the heck is going on here, perhaps you'd be kind enough to give a feller a helping hand.

Mercy. I mean, merci.

jugularity wrote:============================
Maybe it would be worth a try to clear your
thumbnail cache...have a look at the following
article:

How to clear the thumbnail
cache in Windows Vista
http://tinyurl.com/5wf36l
or...
http://www.winhelponline.com/article...ows-Vista.html

--

John Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

Thank you very much John..! I tried your suggestion happily but, alas, it failed to do the trick. I'm much obliged for you to have taken the time to help.

jugularity wrote:================================
My next guess would be that your
video driver may need an update.

As a test...you could try reducing
your Graphics Hardware Acceleration
and if an improvement is realized...
you definitely need to update your
video driver.

"No guarantees and proceed at your own risk."

Windows Vista -
How To Reduce Graphics
Hardware Acceleration

1. Click Start, type personalization
in the Start Search box, and then
click Personalization in the Programs
list.

2. Click Display Settings.

3. Click Advanced Settings.

4. Click the Troubleshooting tab, and
then drag the Hardware Acceleration
slider to the left until it is one notch to
the right of None (the Basic acceleration
setting).

5. Click OK, and then click Close.

6. If you are prompted to restart the
computer, click Yes.

If the problem is improved...reinstall/
update your video driver. If the problem
is not improved...return the acceleration
to Full and seek a different solution.

Good luck.

--

John Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

Thank you again for generously helping. And I'm impressed you managed to dig up such a solution; you really know your way around these nuts and bolts.

I also appreciated your impeccably spelled out directions.

A "Change Settings" button appeared in the "Troubleshoot" tab, but it was grayed out. A message followed: "Your current display driver does not allow changes to be made to hardware acceleration settings."

So that's what running into a brick wall feels like.

Grazi once more, John.

Hi jugularity,

I have seen this type of error with image files (.jpg), that have been transferred from an XP system.

It normally does not affect all files just a small proportion . and is caused by the horizontal and vertical resolution becoming confused. normally opening the files will show them normally. If you load and save them with an application that displayes them correctly that will normally cure the problem.

To check if this is the cause I use Irfanview to open an affected file and on the info screen it shows the DPI on a normal file this will show as 100(%) X 100(%) I have seen figures in affected files of 11000 in the vertical field.

IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

Hope this helps

jugularity wrote:============================================
This is a definite indication that you need
to update your video driver.

Go to the support website of your video
adapter's mfg. and search for Vista
compatible drivers.

If you don't know the make and model of
your video adapter...check the documentation
that came with the computer.

Also you could try these steps...
Go to...Start / Run...type...
msinfo32 ...press enter.

On the System Information screen...choose...
Components / Display...

You should find the make and model of your
display adapter as well as the driver version.

If the driver on the support website is more
current than the one you are running...
download it and install it. Also you should find
and follow the installation instructions at the
support site.

Once the driver is updated...return your acceleration
to Full.

--

John Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk