SOLVED Installed BeFrugal.com Toolbar and Color Trouble Began

[LadyRJB]

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded/installed the BeFrugal.com Toolbar (I should have listened to my inner voice to STOP!) and almost immediately my PC has been in the deficit colorization position seen here.

This is not the feared "blue screen. I have run malware, spyware, viral, registry scans and one Trojan was quarantined, along with a glob of PUP Adware infections, since removed. Obviously the aforementioned were not the cause of this pervasive problem, as it still remains, but for one change. . . there was previously overwhelming bright purple too...geez!

When one looks closely at the several screenshots attached hereto, the faded, unreadable hyperlinks are all but invisible, the colorful icons, including Firefox's Orange globe are all the same dark gray. There are virtually no colors whatsoever now. I've also examined my monitor display settings and all is normal there too.

Before one suggests I do a restore, bear in mind that if I were to do that I would lose many recent bookmarks, saved documents, and downloaded items within that process.

Before posting here, I've done everything I can think of to revert to or restore. Also, I have uninstalled several questionable downloads to make certain they were not responsible for these awful changes. I am truly suffering, as my eyesight is not optimum to begin with. I beg of you, please help!

Thanks,

LadyRJB

 

[TrainableMan]

I edited your pictures to block out your email address for your safety.

Now, as for your issue, I see the icons, hyperlinks, etc all in the correct color and perfectly clear, for example the firefox icons you mentioned ARE orange in your screen capture and that is what we see. This means the color is correct inside your computer but not correctly displaying on your monitor.

So, there are at least two possibilities and they aren't likely related to the toolbar:

One is a hardware issue. Check to make sure the cable connection at the computer and in the back of the monitor are securely connected. If you have a spare, try a completely different cable, because a bad cable can actually change the colors (I had a bad cable once that made everything look pinkish/purple).

Two, a windows update may have updated the video driver on your computer to one that doesn't work properly. To test that go to control panel > device manager, locate display adapters and double click on your video card. Select the Driver tab and check the driver date. Also see if the Rollback Driver option is available or grayed out. If the date is since your problems began and rollback is available then rollback the driver. Note if this works then you will need to go into Windows Update and hide the new video driver so that it does not reinstall.

 

[LadyRJB]

I edited your pictures to block out your email address for your safety.

Now, as for your issue, I see the icons, hyperlinks, etc all in the correct color and perfectly clear, for example the firefox icons you mentioned ARE orange in your screen capture and that is what we see. This means the color is correct inside your computer but not correctly displaying on your monitor.

So, there are at least two possibilities and they aren't likely related to the toolbar:

One is a hardware issue. Check to make sure the cable connection at the computer and in the back of the monitor are securely connected. If you have a spare, try a completely different cable, because a bad cable can actually change the colors (I had a bad cable once that made everything look pinkish/purple).

Two, a windows update may have updated the video driver on your computer to one that doesn't work properly. To test that go to control panel > device manager, locate display adapters and double click on your video card. Select the Driver tab and check the driver date. Also see if the Rollback Driver option is available or grayed out. If the date is since your problems began and rollback is available then rollback the driver. Note if this works then you will need to go into Windows Update and hide the new video driver so that it does not reinstall.

 

[LadyRJB]

Trainable Man, your detailed response w/suggestions were all I needed! In particular, the one that was the perfect fix was to check the tower connections. Although none were loose, I disengaged each, including the power cord, and re-booted. Viola! Fixed! What a beautiful sight to behold!
Thank you!!!

 

[TrainableMan]

You're welcome, glad it worked out.