Image display problems

[Webskater]

Possibly off topic but, given the problem, possibly not.

At home I develop on a laptop with VS2005 and use IE 8

At work I develop on a Windows 7 box running VS2010 and use IE 8

On web sites I develop at home I have a library of jpgs one pixel wide and between 200 and 500 pixels high that I use as backgrounds for divs etc. They get displayed using css like ...

background: #ffffff url(images/E9E9E9White200.jpg) 0 0 repeat-x;

On the laptop at home (and websites I publish from there) the images always look fine (use them all over the place with different shades/colours/graduations etc.).

I thought I'd make one of the pages on a site at work look a bit better and used one of my graphics there. When I view the page with the jpg set as a background the jpg has broken up and is displayed in blocks - like you would expect a gif to.

So, by way of an experiment I stuck this on a page:

    <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
    <tr>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    <td><img src="images/E9E9E9White200.jpg" alt="" /></td>
    </tr>
    </table>

just to see how the graphic displayed (bearing in mind it is only 1px wide).

Stick that code on a page at home and the image displays fine - as a subtle fade from a light grey to white.

Stick that code on a page at work and the image displays as 6 blocks of grey getting progressively lighter.

Is there some setting in VS2010 that isn't in VS2005 that could cause this to happen. I guess it can't be the browser - both are IE 8 and I haven't done anything weird to the settings.

If I view the image direct in the browser at work (although only 1px wide) - it does look as though it is graduating properly. Don't mind admitting I'm a bit baffled.

[gep13]

Hmmm, interesting.

What DOCTYPE is being used, i.e. what is the top line of the ASPX markup for each page?

Gary

[Webskater]

Hmmm, interesting.

What DOCTYPE is being used, i.e. what is the top line of the ASPX markup for each page?

Gary

I did think of that - so made sure they are the same on machine at home and at work.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

Cheers

[gep13]

Any chance you are share the jpg that you are using?

Gary

[Webskater]

Any chance you are share the jpg that you are using?

Gary

Well I've just clicked the attachments icon and uploaded it ... it's only 1px wide ... you can just about see it goes from #E9E9E9 to white over 200px and, on here, displays as a nice graduated tint (bit hard to see on the grey background but it is there).

Cheers

[gep13]

Hey,

Not really sure what to say...

Just took a fresh Visual Studio 2010 project, added your table, and your image, and it worked exactly as expected.

Could this be a driver issue with the graphics card you are using, or perhaps a monitor problem?

Gary

[Webskater]

Hey,

Not really sure what to say...

Just took a fresh Visual Studio 2010 project, added your table, and your image, and it worked exactly as expected.

Could this be a driver issue with the graphics card you are using, or perhaps a monitor problem?

Gary

Thanks for giving it a try Gary - at least I'm not going nuts.

I work remotely using VMWare View Client - maybe, as you say, it's a monitor/graphics card thing. The sites I have created for the company are all business apps - not a graphic or photo in sight generally - thought I'd try to pretty something up yesterday and ended up wasting hours!

I'll retire gracefully I think - and let them have little pop-up help divs with a plain background.

Cheers

[gep13]

Sounds like a plan.

It is a very strange issue indeed though. Have you got the latest VMWare Tools installed on the machine?

Gary

[Webskater]

Sounds like a plan.

It is a very strange issue indeed though. Have you got the latest VMWare Tools installed on the machine?

Gary

To be honest, I don't know - the machine was set up by the people that look after the network. The box is brand new though - I've only been using it for the last few weeks - and has VS2010 and latest versions of everthing else on it.

VMWare wise - maybe it could be a problem with that - when I log on remotely my screen has a black background - which, according to the people who set it up - it shouldn't. Although I log on as an adminstrator, I can't change any of the VMWare settings.

Cheers.

[gep13]

Interesting.

Without knowing more about your exact setup, it is difficult to say.

If you are running the site on a VMWare slice, assuming under IIS, can you hit the website from IE on your machine, rather than accessing localhost? If it is an issue with VMWare rendering, accessing it directly should fix that.

Gary