UKC

Here's an odd one.
I have noticed that some websites open on my laptop in some horrendous "mobile" version, and in some cases this stops them working properly (e.g. xe.com). Times New Roman blue text on white background as if it were still 1999.

Google Chrome, Windows 7. I have been through various tools and settings to no avail. Searched for tips but they seem to be tailored toward people having this issue on tablets and mobile phones rather than on their PC, and they all suggest there is something in Chrome tools to allow you to disable this.

I have a feeling that it happens to websites which I've opened whilst having my mobile phone (Huawei Ascend G300) connected via USB.

Any tips?

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Check the URL, if it starts with m. then you're looking at the mobile version, change this to www. and all should be well again.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Don't know about chrome on a pc, but you may well have an option to "request desktop site" which I use on the tablet.

Go to this page: http://supportdetails.com/

and tell us what it says about your operating system and browser

In reply to Roadie_in_denial:

Thanks, no "m" in the URL, I had seen this suggestion elsewhere but it's not the culprit in my case.

Incidentally these "mobile" versions take ages to load up on my PC, which seems at odds with what I thought the point was...
Hmm

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Windows 7
Chrome 31.0.1650.57

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Have you tried a forced refresh (Ctrl+F5) as it might be cached versions from when you were conntect via mobile (tethering?)

Are you using the feature that chrome advertise where your browsing history is shared accross multiple devices? I wonder if that's what's causing this?

In reply to Blue Straggler:

xe.com

i use firefox so just as a test i changed the ul to m.xe.com
browser switched the url to xe.com/m/ and dispalyed something like what you described.

the top "bar" of the site calls itself xe mobile currency site and over on the right side it has two links to full site and home

is that what you are seeing in chrome? if so what happens if you click the full site link?

(ps it opened in about 2 seconds flat on my machine)

about to try it in chrome

In reply to Blue Straggler:
it sounds more like your browser isn't loading CSS files rather than your broswer loading a mobile version.

Have you tried clearing your cache? Have you tried control+F5 to hard refresh the page?

The moblie version of xe.com on my phone uses sans-serif fonts.

The css file for xe.com is http://s.xe.com/20100208/themes/xe/css/homepage.1o.css what, can you view that file? What happens if you view the page after loading that file.

In chrome if you right click and press "inspect element" (or something along those lines) you should be able to see where the page is getting it styling from on the right hand side.
In the window that appears if you go to network you should be able to see the files which are loading and any which are failing.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Didn't realise chrome was up to version 31?

do you get the same issue with any other browsers?

It might be worth uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome

In reply to rallymania:

nope doing the same in chrome on this machine too, sorry ,not much help

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Yes, and cleared cookies and cache and indeed all History. No joy!


Ooh I don't know. Maybe...I will investigate if an uninstall-reinstall Chrome does not work. Thanks

In reply to rallymania:

No worries, thanks for trying. I will do as the other chap says and uninstall-reinstall Chrome.

In reply to Blue Straggler:
If it's a DNS problem caused by connecting with your phone you may need to flush your DNS cache. http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1600/vista_dns_cache_flush/

In reply to Blue Straggler:

No joy (but I may have lost all my bookmarks, possibly a good thing!) and weirdly it has still got some cached stuff from before (it automatically logged me in to UKC, webmail and Facebook...)

In reply to Foxy:

Done. Didn't fix it! Thanks anyway though.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

In your connection settings is there a proxy setup? Can't remember exactly how to look off the top of my head though

In reply to Foxy:

Yeah I kind of looked at proxy stuff, it's a bit beyond me TBH but I did look, there was nothing obvious, and I left before doing more damage! Thank you

In reply to Blue Straggler:

when you say it only happens when you connect your phone via USB, could it be tethering to the phone? Do you ever use your phone to access mobile internet and could it possibly be connecting through this. Had that cause me to end up at mobile sites before

In reply to climber david:


This was only a half-baked theory based upon a single observation this morning TBH (I had been looking at pocket-lint.com for mobile phone reviews, then plugged in my phone whilst Chrome was closed, then opened pocket-lint.com and it had gone all crappy as described in the OP, which I assume is the mobile version)



Possibly but it would be an odd thing to do, I think!


Yes I do use my phone (in isolation!) to access mobile Internet.

I can only call it a vague/possible connection