IE/Firefox Browser Narrow Display problem -Blank left/right side

[jcdb]

Hello,
I need help figuring out a problem I have where the my Internet Explorer 6.0 browser displays web page screens in a narrow fashion. When I go to sites such as yahoo.com, aol, msn.com (which have activex) , the browser display these sites' screens in a narrow fashion, where the left and right side of the screens are blank.

I have a dell dimention 3000 home PC, with windows XP Home version 5.1.2600 service pack 2 build 2600, norton security firewall, IE 6.0.2900.2180 . I called dell and they say it's an activeX issue.

I thought it was just a IE problem but I have this problem in both IE and Firefox after I viewed it in firefox.

Does anyone know what's really causing this problem and how do I fix it?

thanks

[edited by: encyclo at 6:13 pm (utc) on Nov. 26, 2005]
[edit reason] no screenshots please [/edit]

[Robin_reala]

Is that not just their design? A centered site with a fixed central width?

[encyclo]

>> Is that not just their design? A centered site with a fixed central width?

Exactly - all of those sites have simply decided to fix the width of the design so that it fits on to an 800x600 screen. Nothing wrong with the browser, ActiveX or your machine, merely a design consideration for those sites.

[jcdb]

encyclo,
It's not just those sites I mentioned, it's every simple sites that I visit. There's no way that all these sites would adjust their screens. I tought it was the monitor but after I put in a diferent monitor , the problem still exist. I thought it was the browser, but after I installed another browser firefox, the problem still exist.

If I go to the library or bookstore I won't have this problem. it's just on my particular pc. Also, a friend of mine has the exact dell demension system but he does not have this problem. So, it seems to be a windows xp sp2 issue. Also, no one will be able to see or understand the problem without the screenshot , can you make an exception since I'm not selling anything or promoting any sites?
thansk

[tedster]

The screenshot policy is something we can't bend, sorry. But I'll bet we can resolve this issue anyway.

What is your current screen resolution? (SETTINGS > CONTROL PANEL > DISPLAY > SETTINGS)

[jcdb]

tedster
my screen resolution under (SETTINGS > CONTROL PANEL > DISPLAY > SETTINGS) are as follows:

Screen resolution 1024 by 768 pixels. I've tried this with dell but that was not the problem. Now when I visit cnn.com's home page, all the content move to the left of the screen..the right side has a blank vertical space similar to the prior sreen print i sent.

[encyclo]

If you check out the source code for cnn.com you will see that the site is enclosed in a table which is defined as:

<table [b]width="770"[/b]

Thus on a screen width of 1024 pixels you will always be left with a gap on the right-hand side of up to nearly 250 pixels (plus scrollbars, etc.). The other machines you are testing on may well have the screen resolution set at 800x600, meaning that 770 pixels fills the horizontal space.

[jcdb]

Yahoo's, msn, aol's home pages view source pages do not have this "table width" limit issue but these site still do "not" display correclty on my pc. Also even [microsoft.com...] and [office.microsoft.com...] do "not" display correclty on my pc.. everything shift to the left on the microsoft screens.

[jcdb]

Thanks for your help anyways..I'll just deal with it.

[tedster]

My screen resolution is 1280x768. I checked all those examples and for every one, I see either a centered "box" with empty space on both sides, or a similarly sized box, but shifted all the way to the left. These are all fixed width layouts that do not expand to fill all the availabel screen space -- whether fixed by an obvious table width in the source code, or by a CSS rule.

Here's my suggestion - next time you are using a computer that looks the way you feel is right, check the resolution. I'm prettty sure you'll see that it's set at 800x600, and not larger the way your computer is.