I tried booting my pc this morning only to find strange symbols where my english text once stood, it only seems to have problems with actual Windows software, all the text in websites and programs show up fine, here is a picture displaying.http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9284/091105095257.png

From the look of it, it's neither a Symbol or any other Windows Font displaying your system texts. The only case I can think of (and where I've seen something similar) is displaying text in a language for which you haven't the proper fonts installed. For example, if you try to display Japanese symbols without the right font (IME), you get those weird "placeholders". How you've got this interesting feature, is another question.Mobile AMD64 3000+, VIA Apollo K8T800 chipset, 1 G RAM, ATIRadeonMobility 9700, 20x DVDRW, C:XPSP3 (55G),D:WIN7 (25G),F:DATA (250G)

Please check the following Registry entry. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FontAssoc\Associated Charset] The correct keys and values are: "ANSI(00)"="YES""OEM(FF)"="YES""SYMBOL(02)"="NO" If the issue persists, change your non-Unicode program setting. 1. Click Start, run intl.cpl from Start Search box. 2. Click the Administrative tab.3. Click Change system local. Choose the correct language.Arthur Xie - MSFT

I had a similar problem today after restarting Win7 on my laptop. When I checked the fonts (Start button --> type "fonts"), I realized that all of my fonts were missing besides unicode. I transfered all of my fonts from my old laptop to my new laptop that had the problem, and everything went back to normal. Phew! I have no idea how my fonts were deleted! I thought that it was some weird prank (or an alien visit). ;)

Please check the following Registry entry. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FontAssoc\Associated Charset] The correct keys and values are: "ANSI(00)"="YES" "OEM(FF)"="YES" "SYMBOL(02)"="NO" If the issue persists, change your non-Unicode program setting. 1. Click Start, run intl.cpl from Start Search box. 2. Click the Administrative tab. 3. Click “Change system local”. Choose the correct language. Arthur Xie - MSFT How do you successfully correct your registry, when your OS is displaying symbols instead of text? I even grabbed my other Windows 7 machine, and the "FontAssoc" doesn't even show up in the string you have listed. I have narrowed it down to 1 of 2 Windows 7 updates (since this has happened to me more recently) It is either Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB2570791) or KB2607712. I have had to restore my system 2 times after reinstalling them a 2nd time to get my text to display correctly!

Help I have the same thing! It happened after I unitinstalled IE 9 because IE gave me a black screen with a cursor. I've even used system restore and restored to a storepoint from a few days ago. I can't read the registry because its all symbols so i can't use the above solution! HELP!

i have the same problem and tried what you said to do and it still hasnt worked i have to do a system restore everytime i want to use my laptop please help ?

I am taking my Microsoft POS to a shooting range and buying a Mac. I hope all my customers do the same. I am so fed up with Microsoft producing software and updates that end up screwing up your system and eventually costing what a Mac would have cost to begin with. See ya Microsoft!

Hi Arthur. I'm having the same problem, but I'm just just a layman when to comes to computer geek talk. Could you please explain how I can access those sugesstions you mentioned above. I'm running windows XP service pack 3. Best Regards. Harry.