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Home › Support › Getting rid of wierdly large fonts

Getting rid of wierdly large fonts

01 February 2006 · by Steve Litchfield
Applications, Troubleshooting Series 80

Q. I've had problems with strange fonts in Contacts on my Nokia 9500 (after a little fiddling with TrueType fonts!), but deleting all my INI files (using 'Ctrl' 'Shift' 'I' on startup) didn't seem to do the trick. The strange font now crops up on command buttons as well as in search fields. The rest of my Communicator is working fine, but is there anything else I can do to get my fonts back to normal?

There must be a system file which has gotten itself confused. The solution is to reformat the internal disk of your Communicator, with Symbian OS rebuilding your \System folder from scratch, but don't worry, virtually everything is quick and easy to restore. Here's the procedure:

  1. Go to PC Suite Backup and uncheck the 'Make full backup' box. You can now uncheck the 'Settings' box, meaning that the \System folder gets ignored. Go ahead and perform a backup now.
  2. If you have any third party applications on your internal disk, these will need re-installing, so make sure you have the original .SIS files handy on your PC. Also take a note of any critical settings and application data, just in case (some applications keep small amounts of data in a folder inside \System).
  3. Remove the 9500's battery, wait a few seconds and then reinsert it. Leave the battery cover off for now and quickly turn the Communicator over. Hold down 'Ctrl'+''Shift'+'F' and after a few seconds you'll see a prompt to format the internal disk. Say 'Yes'.
  4. Back in PC Suite, use the 'Restore' function to put the contents of your last backup back onto the 9500 (minus its \System folder).
  5. Re-install any applications that were originally installed to the internal disk and re-enter any registration or activation codes.

You should find that everything's more or less back to normal. There will be the odd preference that needs setting, but all your PIM data, files (and, strangely) email settings will work again immediately. And the longstanding font problem is now hopefully banished forever!