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Last post Author Topic: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro  (Read 25095 times)

Darwin

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Hi all,

I am hoping that someone here can help me solve a problem I've been having for a while on my notebook and which I have drawn a complete blank in attemtping to solve. Either someone is playing a spectacular joke on me or I am in freefall into madness. Allow me to explain...

My wife is Korean and we each have our own computers. My notebook, until recently, had never had East Asian Language support installed on it. At some point, I began to notice some peculiar text in dialogue boxes and in both the titlebar and taskbar entries for ESRI's ArcGIS package (specifically the ArcMap component). Where one would expect to see "new file" displayed in the taskbar icon on initially opening the app, there were three squares. Ditto for the titlebar. Once a file was opened, it's name appeared in the titlebar but the three squares remained in the taskbar. The same applied for the dialogue that appeared when I attempted to close a file that I had modified but had not saved. Instead of "Do you want to save changes to xyz" I got three squares and a question mark. Please note that ALL my files are saved with English language names. Also note that most other text in the programme renders fine - helpfiles, about dialogue, menus and the like.

I'm not sure what prompted me to do the following, but I installed East Asian language support. On firing up ArcGIS again the three squares had been replaced by a perfect translation of "New file" into Korean - not just a transliteration, but rendered in Korean writing (hangul). I noodled around so that there would be changes to the new file and closed the app. The dialogue, too, was displaying a Korean translation of "do you want to save changes". In rooting around in my system I opened up Paint and Wordpad - same behaviour. I can't test Notepad because I've long since replaced it with metapad. The save and save as dialogue boxes appear with "?? ???? ??" in the titlebar.

Now consider:

1. I had never installed East Asian language support on this computer (prior to the behaviour beginning to manifest itself);
2. I'd never tried to change any of my language settings from English (Canada) prior to troubleshooting this;
3. No Korean, including my wife, has ever had access to the computer;
4. there is no i386/language folder (and associated files) on the OEM CD for XP Pro that shipped with my computer. To get East Asian language support onto my notebook, I had to copy that folder from the i386 folder on my wife's computer... FWIW, mine is a Gateway notebook purchased in Canada BUT it's a rebadged Samsung X5/X10 or X15 (not sure exactly which one - but Samsung is a Korean company).

I can find NO way to change this and it's driving me crazy. Under Control Panel/Regional settings I have "standards and formats" and language for non-unicode programmes set to English (Canada). I've experiemented with both English (US) and English (UK) without success. I do not have (and never have had) the MS MUI package installed. Office 2003 Pro and a myriad of other software packages are NOT affected.

Can anybody shed some light on this? Given that the dialogues are in Korean and I can read them (or get them translated), this shouldn't bother me, but it does. Immensely. I can't be more specific about when this behaviour began because I never use Paint, never use Wordpad and haven't really been using ArcMap much and know that for the longest time after I started seeing it there, thought it was something to do with corruption in it's installation (it's not - it's been repaired, uinnstalled, reinstalled, cursed at and banished from my system for stretches of time).

Any insights most appreciated.  :'(

PS here are a couple of screenshots:

1. Wordpad "do you want to save changes":
Do you want to save changes.pngWrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro

2. ArcMap taskbar and titlebar:
title and taskbar.png
« Last Edit: December 27, 2006, 05:15 PM by Darwin »

Darwin

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I'm shamelessly bumping my own thread. I've very slightly edited the above post in hopes of clarifying the odd point. I also realise that this may not be the best place for me to be positng these kinds of issues. I've posted elsewhere but thought I'd tap into the expertis here, as well. No responses to my posts elsewhere, either, by the way. I posted them about a week and a half ago.

I can't repair my XP installation as I've updated to Sp-2. The OEM XP CD is Sp-1a and protected and I can't slipstream Sp-2 onto a copy (or can I?! Anyone? Anyone?...).

Thanks in advance for any comment,

Mike :huh:

Darwin

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Just posted about a different problem that I'm having and thought I'd bump this one while I am at it... Shameless! I realise that the lack of a response over the past 10 months is a pretty strong indicator that no one has any idea about this problem, but hope springs eternal  ;D

steeladept

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Just because and for a very long shot - Did you check the BIOS settings?  Perhaps something changed there/Got reset?  Just a thought.  It shouldn't make a difference, but....

As for slipstreaming SP2, I know you can, we have a copy at work.  I just don't know how to do so myself as I have never had the need to learn.  Of course in the 9 months since, you probably already learned that :) .

Dirhael

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I seem to recall myself encountering a somwhat similar problem a few times in the past on XP, but the solution was different in most cases. It's been a while now, but here's what I remember..

* One time, it was caused by a corrupt registry. What solved it that time was to rebuild it. To do so, just download a trial copy of JV16 Powertools and use use the "Registry Compactor" utility. You could also use TuneUp utilities to do the same if you prefer that. Even if this doesn't solve your problem, it doesn't hurt as rebuilding the registry can solve a surprising number of problems. It's also completely safe as it doesn't remove any information, so... :)

* A few other times it was caused by a program messing with my codepages in Windows. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was actually some registry entries being imported from a Total Commander plugin.

The registry key in question was:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage

Now what it [the plugin] had done to my registry was to change:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage]

"1250"="c_1250.nls"
"1251"="c_1251.nls"
"1252"="c_1252.nls"
"1253"="c_1253.nls"
"1254"="c_1254.nls"

into:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage]

"1250"="c_1251.nls"
"1251"="c_1251.nls"
"1252"="c_1251.nls"
"1253"="c_1251.nls"
"1254"="c_1251.nls"

It could be that something has done something similar to your registry. If so, could could try fixing it yourself by manually correcting the entries. I could check my recently installed copy of XP for my settings (the default ones), even if they might differ slightly. You should still be able to see if something is wrong on yours though.

---

As I said, it's been a while but I don't think I did anything else to solve it at that time. Hope this at least gets you a tiny step further in troubleshooting this :)
Registered nurse by day, hobby programmer by night.

Darwin

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Hey Steeladept and Dirhael - many thanks! I'll work my way through these to see if I can spot any problems and report back. I'm glad I bumped the thread - almost didn't!

Dirhael

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Just rebooted into XP so here's the complete dump the relevant registry key I was talking about (I'm using a English version, Norway in regional setting (should be the same CP though..I think) and with non-unicode set to English US):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage]
"10000"="c_10000.nls"
"10001"=""
"10002"=""
"10003"=""
"10004"=""
"10005"=""
"10006"="c_10006.nls"
"10007"="c_10007.nls"
"10008"=""
"10010"="c_10010.nls"
"10017"="c_10017.nls"
"10021"=""
"10029"="c_10029.nls"
"10079"="c_10079.nls"
"10081"="c_10081.nls"
"10082"="c_10082.nls"
"1026"="c_1026.nls"
"1047"=""
"1140"=""
"1141"=""
"1142"=""
"1143"=""
"1144"=""
"1145"=""
"1146"=""
"1147"=""
"1148"=""
"1149"=""
"1250"="c_1250.nls"
"1251"="c_1251.nls"
"1252"="c_1252.nls"
"1253"="c_1253.nls"
"1254"="c_1254.nls"
"1255"="c_1255.nls"
"1256"="c_1256.nls"
"1257"="c_1257.nls"
"1258"="c_1258.nls"
"1361"="c_1361.nls"
"20000"=""
"20001"=""
"20002"=""
"20003"=""
"20004"=""
"20005"=""
"20105"=""
"20106"=""
"20107"=""
"20108"=""
"20127"="c_20127.nls"
"20261"="c_20261.nls"
"20269"=""
"20273"=""
"20277"=""
"20278"=""
"20280"=""
"20284"=""
"20285"=""
"20290"=""
"20297"=""
"20420"=""
"20423"=""
"20424"=""
"20833"=""
"20838"=""
"20866"="c_20866.nls"
"20871"=""
"20880"=""
"20905"=""
"20924"=""
"20932"=""
"20936"=""
"20949"=""
"21025"=""
"21027"=""
"21866"="c_21866.nls"
"28591"="C_28591.NLS"
"28592"="C_28592.NLS"
"28593"=""
"28594"="C_28594.NLS"
"28595"="C_28595.NLS"
"28596"=""
"28597"="C_28597.NLS"
"28598"=""
"28599"="c_28599.nls"
"28605"="c_28605.nls"
"37"="c_037.nls"
"38598"=""
"437"="c_437.nls"
"500"="c_500.nls"
"51949"=""
"50220"=""
"50221"=""
"50222"=""
"50225"=""
"50227"=""
"50229"=""
"52936"=""
"57002"=""
"57003"=""
"57004"=""
"57005"=""
"57006"=""
"57007"=""
"57008"=""
"57009"=""
"57010"=""
"57011"=""
"708"=""
"720"=""
"737"="c_737.nls"
"775"="c_775.nls"
"850"="c_850.nls"
"852"="c_852.nls"
"855"="c_855.nls"
"857"="c_857.nls"
"858"=""
"860"="c_860.nls"
"861"="c_861.nls"
"862"=""
"863"="c_863.nls"
"864"=""
"865"="c_865.nls"
"866"="c_866.nls"
"869"="c_869.nls"
"870"=""
"874"="c_874.nls"
"875"="c_875.nls"
"932"="c_932.nls"
"936"="c_936.nls"
"949"="c_949.nls"
"950"="c_950.nls"
"ACP"="1252"
"OEMCP"="437"
"MACCP"="10000"
"OEMHAL"="vgaoem.fon"
"28603"="c_28603.nls"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\CodePage\EUDCCodeRange]
"932"="F040-F9FC"
"936"="AAA1-AFFE,F8A1-FEFE,A140-A7A0"
"949"="C9A1-C9FE,FEA1-FEFE"
"950"="FA40-FEFE,8E40-A0FE,8140-8DFE,C6A1-C8FE"
"Unicode"="E000-F8FF"
Registered nurse by day, hobby programmer by night.

Darwin

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Awesome - that really helps Dirhael  :-*

tomos

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I can't repair my XP installation as I've updated to Sp-2. The OEM XP CD is Sp-1a and protected and I can't slipstream Sp-2 onto a copy (or can I?! Anyone? Anyone?...).
Mike:
If it's still relevant
I tried autopatcher & nlite lately & would recommend autopatcher
- probably not being able to resist all the tweaking options of nlite was the problem - autopatcher just does the job..
I'm not sure about the "protected" aspect - is it like a Dell one or something ? -
did read about someone using nlite I think to slipstream a HP XP disc & make it, well, crap free
dont have the link for that though

If it's XP home you will have (or should say I had :-[) problems trying to do a repair install -
XP home doesnt allow you to logon to default Administrator account * (god knows why) & then
Repair install asks you (or me) to logon as admin... catch 22 but read about ways around it
as I say if you still interested I will get links (have them bookmarked).
I didnt go through with it myself...

* EDIT: or so I was told anyways & I cant
Tom
« Last Edit: September 22, 2007, 06:31 PM by tomos »

mwang

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Hi, Mike:

I've been using English Windows with East Asian language support for years (from NT to Vista). I've run into this a few times. Usually it happens after installing/updating software or device drivers (or their associate utilities), which install those East Asian version of dialogs/controls. IIRC it always happens when either the format localization setting (which controls the display of date/time, etc.) or the default system locale (for non-Unicode programs) is set to an East Asian language. In my case, it would be Chinese (Taiwan). Since you say you've never change those two settings to anything other than English, however, then you may have run into something I've never seen before.

To avoid this, I always change those two settings to Chinese at the very last step when setting up a new system, after I've installed all the software and drivers I need. And yet the problem is inevitable since new programs and updates have to be installed. For known programs that have this problem, I switch those two settings to English before installing them. Still, it's just a matter of time before I forget, or try new software. Sometimes I just live with it, otherwise I uninstall the new stuff and reinstall it after switching locale.

The nastiest ones come with Windows Updates -- e.g., nVidia drivers. If I change the locale settings to English before updating nVidia drivers, but then after I switch back to Chinese, some nVidia dialogs would show a series of question marks. No solution till this day.

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2007, 12:11 PM »
Hi guys - thanks for all the suggestions. I've defragged my registry using Resplendence Registry Manager and rebooted. Problem persists. It's possible that the RRM defragmentation option differes from TuneUp Utilities - I'll have to investigate that further. EDIT: No, they are the same...

I can't find any registry entries that differ from those that Dirhael...

So, I'm going to sit on this for a day or two until I have more time and try all of the above again while looking closely at third party program settings, etc.

I'll report back!
« Last Edit: September 23, 2007, 04:09 PM by Darwin »

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #11 on: September 23, 2007, 04:00 PM »
Thanks for the pointers, Tom. I missed your post earlier this morning. I'll take a look and see if I can't get Sp-2 slipstreamed onto a copy of my OEM XP disc. I *think* the issue is one of copy protection though... we'll see.

jandi

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #12 on: September 24, 2007, 03:24 PM »
Oh, the joys of a bilingual computer.
I've experienced a somewhat similar situation, and have learned to live with it.   :-\
My computer came with Windows XP pre-installed, in Spanish.  Since I'm currently living in Canada, most of the software I install is in English (I speak both languages, so I quite don't care which language anything is in).  My copy of MS Office is in English, and so was the upgrade to IE7.  This has resulted in a Frankenstein bilingual operating system, with dialogs such as "Desea continuar?   Yes, No, Cancelar"   Not only on MS software, but something on some installers seems to mess around with  my OS dialogues and make them increasingly bilingual.  It used to drive me crazy, but since Spanglish is already becoming my main language at this point, I guess it only fits my situation to have a computer with language identity crisis.

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #13 on: September 24, 2007, 05:00 PM »
Heh, heh, and Konglish is how I communictate with most people these days anyway...  :)

mwang

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2007, 12:23 AM »
I'm getting used to it, too, as long as I can still understand what it says. What really drive me nuts are context menus and dialogs like this (notice the question marks?):

Edit: sorry, I don't know how to get the picture to zoom in and out as you guys do. I thought it's automatic (by the system), but apparently not. I'll dig around the site to learn how.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2007, 12:27 AM by mwang »

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #15 on: September 25, 2007, 12:59 AM »
mwang - thanks for the screenshot. To get it to zoom in and out make sure that you are in "preview" and then select the pulldown option for "Inline thumb attachment":

Preview button in message.pngWrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro

Inline thumb attachment.pngWrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro

tabletguy

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #16 on: September 25, 2007, 06:44 AM »
Check the following (didn't see any mention of this on this page...)

Regional and Language Options
Advanced Tab
Check "Language for non-Unicode programs" is set to English and "Apply settings..."

Languages Tab
Click "Details" and verify "Default input language" is English
Click "Advanced" tab. I currently have "Extend support.." checked and "Turn off advanced..." unchecked

Regional Options Tab
I have "English" for regional defaults.
You can set your "Location" also for some reporting services.

It can help to CHANGE the options, save, then CHANGE BACK. This ensures registry settings are all applied.

The first item is the one that helped me in a similar situation, where install programs would run in German, when I didn't even have the language loaded. But, at one point, a friend had used the computer in German for a little while and it got set somehow.

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #17 on: September 25, 2007, 07:26 AM »
Hi tabletguy - Thank you for the suggestions  :Thmbsup:. I've checked all of my settings and they match yours (I've played around with them in the past trying to resolve this issue). However, I've made a bunch of changes, "applied" them and then changed them back. I'm being asked to reboot and will do so and report back.

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #18 on: September 25, 2007, 07:35 AM »
Just to update the above - that didn't work, either  :( I haven't been able to look more closely at my registry, etc. but will try to do that today or tomorrow. This is one of those problems that doesn't affect my ability to use my computer a jot, but it's taken on the characterstics of an itch that I cannot ignore...

I'll try your suggestion posted in the 16 bit program thread that I started now - looks like a great idea (wish I'd thought of it but I went the other way, INSTALLING languages instead of uninstalling them)
« Last Edit: September 25, 2007, 07:41 AM by Darwin »

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #19 on: September 25, 2007, 08:00 AM »
Nope... I STILL get Korean language text in dialogues. In Paint the title bar text is a series of question marks (?? ???? ??) but the dialogues themselves are in Hangul. I recall a Korean boy staying with us about a year ago and being very cavalier with an old notebook that I lent him. It ran Win2k (English) and he managed to convert EVERYTHING into Hangul (little bugger - didn't ask permission, just did it - my fault for not making his user account more limited - I did manage to correct everything, but still...) all titles, menu items, help files, dialogues, the log in screen, the lot. He googled it and figured out how... I guess I am going to have to do the same now. I suspect that some setting that he applied has also been inadvertently set on this computer. I suspect the Code Page Conversion tables - I unchecked everything before uninstalling the non-English languages, but of course all the East Asian languages were greyed out. I'll check that now.

Hmmm... those code pages remain greyed out - I can't uncheck them.  I don't have access to a computer at the moment that is English only. I'll dig deeper...
« Last Edit: September 25, 2007, 08:02 AM by Darwin »

mwang

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #20 on: September 25, 2007, 11:58 AM »
Darwin, thanks for the quick tutorial.

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #21 on: September 25, 2007, 12:08 PM »
Hmmm... those code pages remain greyed out - I can't uncheck them.  I don't have access to a computer at the moment that is English only. I'll dig deeper...

I lied. My wife has two notebooks from work, both running XP Pro Sp-2 sitting in her home office that are basic installs with Office 2003 Pro, AV and antispyware installs only. Forgot about those and am off to check them now.

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #22 on: September 25, 2007, 12:14 PM »
Nope. Everything is the same. The only difference is that I have everything set on my notebook to English - Canada and the defaults are for English - United States. I've changed mine to the same and am rebooting now - see what happens (wish me luck)!

Aaaargh! I am losing my mind... There is now now East Asian Language support on this computer, all defaults are set and yet I am STILL seeing Korean dialogs in Paint. I might have to parlay this into an excuse to buy a new computer. No, wait, then I'd be stuck with Vista and bloody ArcGIS 9.1 won't RUN under Vista... (Darwin runs around naked on the lawn in front of his house screaming like a chcken. It's not pretty...).
« Last Edit: September 25, 2007, 12:26 PM by Darwin »

Darwin

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #23 on: September 25, 2007, 12:33 PM »
This is caused by the fact that your Windows XP CD contains updates that will be automatically installed when you run setup. This type of CD's will usually be from larger OEM suppliers (like Dell, HP, or others).

You cannot use this type of CD to create a slipstreamed SP2 install

The above quote, from this http://www.helpwithw...inxp-sp2-bootcd.html, speaks to why I can't slipstream Sp-2 onto an XP installation disc. What a steaming pile of... sorry, folks, not a good day in Darwin's little world - though Cranialscopical did fix my other, and more pressing, problem  :-*

tomos

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Re: Wrong language displayed for some dialogues and other features in XP Pro
« Reply #24 on: September 26, 2007, 02:14 AM »
This is caused by the fact that your Windows XP CD contains updates that will be automatically installed when you run setup. This type of CD's will usually be from larger OEM suppliers (like Dell, HP, or others).

You cannot use this type of CD to create a slipstreamed SP2 install

The above quote, from this http://www.helpwithw...inxp-sp2-bootcd.html, speaks to why I can't slipstream Sp-2 onto an XP installation disc. What a steaming pile of... sorry, folks, not a good day in Darwin's little world - though Cranialscopical did fix my other, and more pressing, problem  :-*

I wonder would you be able to use a different copy of XP & your own registration number ??
I had a look for that forum post saying someone slipstreamed SP2 & XP from a HP oem disc but unfortunately couldnt find it.
You could always give it a go & see - probably wasting your time but you never know...
Tom