Can't see text in Yahoo - Tried everything!

[patndoris]

Hmmmm....that's a new one on me!

What version of YH is your contact using?
Does this always happen with this contact or does it work ok sometimes?
I assume you were ok with them before, when did it start happening?

At the moment this is a bit of a mystery to me. Perhaps one of the YH gurus will weigh in a little later with more info. I do know some specific contacts of mine seem to have certain issues at times that appear to be server related so it's possibly a YH problem if it's only occurring on this one contact. I'm going to ponder and see if I can come up with anything else for you.

Sorry I don't have a better answer just yet.

-Doris-

[Syncopator]

Hello Doris and thank you.

I don't know yet what version that contact is using. I shall try to press for an answer.
Communication on Yahoo Msgr between us used to be ok. We haven't been in contact for a while, though, and this particular problem started when we recently tried to talk again.
There had been ocasional difficulties before, which we put down to having different versions, but nothing as severe as this.

I have only 5 contacts on my list. I haven't spoken to 2 of them for many months but we didn't have problems as far as I remember. I don't have problems with the other 2.

When I right click and open up a message window for any of the other 4, even though they're not on line, I get the complete window with all the facilities and my photograph presented.


Another problem which I overlooked mentioning is that within the last day or so someone asked to add me to their contact list. I acknowledged, saying ok. Their name was added to my list pending their acceptance - with the smiley greyed out. The next time I logged in, that contact had disappeared from the list. The person informs me that I am still on their list.

What did Alice say? "Peculiarer and peculiarer", or something ......

Regards,

David

[patndoris]

Your contact list is stored on the YH servers. Sometimes they have "issues". I had a case where on two different machines, a contact I deleted was gone on one but still showing on the other (and I couldn't delete it there.) After a couple of weeks it took care of itself.

Sounds like one of those Yahoo burps there seem to be so many of these days.

-Doris-

[Syncopator]

Ok, that sounds promising at least.

Further to my last point , re the new contact, in my last post, The person gave me their email address so that I could initiate the request. That worked, insofar as we both had each other listed in our contacts, but, again, I could see they they were typing messages although none appeared in my my message window.
The window displayed all the bells and whistles and my photo.

They then initiated a request again using another account/name. This time it works properly both ways. My message window, however, has everything but Plug-ins greyed out and doesn't show my photo!

[patndoris]

Well....as you so aptly put it before....very peculiar. Your contact is not by any chance using YH Web Messenger when this oddity occurs are they? Assuming not....

Have you tried the fix in post #10 above?

Have you run a complete virus & spyware scan with up to date definitions? Spyware especially can cause programs to behave in odd ways. I'd suggest an Ad-Aware scan and then another with a totally different program such as Spybot or Advanced Windows Care, Super Anti-Spyware, etc.

Have you tried allowing pop-up everywhere? (IE settings, all extra toolbars, and Firefox if you use it?) It has worked for a number of people including myself. It won't address the greyed out items, but it might help with the "is typing" but nothing ever seems to come through.

I'd really recommend both being on the latest version of Yahoo. The latest public version is stable - no reason to have any worries updating to it.

-Doris-

[Ven0m]

Interesting. Are you using Internet Explorer 6 or Internet Explorer 7? I'm assuming you're using IE7 since you have all critical updates (and I believe IE7 is considered one). =P

[Dermot]

When you send or receive an instant message and no message appears, you probably have scripting disabled in your Internet Explorer.

To enable scripting:

1. Click the "Tools" menu on your Internet Explorer toolbar and select "Internet Options."
2. Click the "Security" tab.
3. Click the Internet (globe) icon and click the "Custom Level" button.
4. Scroll down to "Scripting."
5. Enable the following:
* Active scripting
* Allow paste operations via script
* Scripting of Java applets are all enabled
6. Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the window.

Note: Restart Yahoo! Messenger and you should start seeing text in your IM windows again.

[aneagle]

Blank upper IM window, I tried everything and can't get text back until I removed and re-installed IE7.

[patndoris]

Removing and reinstalling IE seems a drastic step to have to take. That seems to indicate there was some setting within IE that was the cause of the problem. If it were to happen again I think I'd go revert to the default settings on all areas and see if that might happen to correct the issue.

Failing that, I'd run a HJT log and scrutinize it for anything out of the ordinary. But then again, I'm not one to go for the quick fix on things either. If a reinstall of IE fixed it, that could certainly be faster than hours of time that may or may not yield anything.

I've had automatic updates to Windows which caused my IE to completely malfunction, and indeed once I did have to uninstall and reinstall it to get things working again. I will say however that at the time, it affected far more than just my IM's or browser and I believe it was related to how Symantec corporate handled the critical updates.

I'm glad to hear that you did get it working though!

[Ven0m]

I suspect this could/will be worse for those who install the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 that's out now. Again, I don't know this until I download, install and test it with Messenger.