Chinese Characters ... bizarre problem

Shanghai Expat Forum Index » Hot Topics Forums » Technology Issues

Author

Message

urgentculture

Rocker

Joined: Aug 19, 2003
Posts: 762

Status: Offline

Posted: Dec 15, 2004 - 01:19 PM
Post subject: Chinese Characters ... bizarre problem

OK, i've posted before, and i've posted on tech message boards, but i still have this problem. I have all the language packs installed (yes, and re-installed) and selected in my browsers. I can type and read simplified chinese characters fine, 99% of the time -- in various programs, across the web, in emails, on MSN messenger, etc. But -- not in HOTMAIL. In the body of hotmail emails, the characters turn to gibberish. Yes I have been swapping emails with hotmail support ... since March 2004, and they never are able to figure out my problem.

Now, i just found another website with Chinese Characters, that my friends can read on their machines, but on mine, *SOME* of the characters turn to rubbish:

http://fm974.tom.com/hits/song_china.html
(the navigation characters i can read fine, but the body text is rubbish)

This is a bizarre problem to me. I have Win XP. The problem happens in IE and Mozilla browsers. Can someone solve this mystery? Why the inconsistency?

urgentculture

Rocker

Joined: Aug 19, 2003
Posts: 762

Status: Offline

Posted: Dec 15, 2004 - 01:40 PM

OK, i think I figured this out ... if anyone else has the same problem...

In all my browsers, there are two places to select character sets. In Preferences, and in View>Character Encoding. I messed around with both, and now it's working (not really logical, but when have pc's been logical?). It appears to be a problem with the use of "frames" in the HTML code of certain websites ... stupid.

Also, it looks like i have to re-select gb2312 each time i open the browser.

n00b
PopStar
PopStar

Joined: Apr 27, 2004
Posts: 1130
Location: Hua Guo Mountain

Posted: Dec 15, 2004 - 01:41 PM

open your ie, click on view... choose encoding.
then pick chinese simplified (gb2312).
if you choose unicode, sometimes it can read, sometimes it cannot.