[WCK]

Something very very odd has been happening recently with... well, my computer in general. It all started the morning a couple days ago when there was a power surge in my house and the computer got restarted while I was working in photoshop. Ever since then the colour of things seem to be really messed.

It seems whenever I save something in photoshop the way I normally do, it either becomes really thick and messed, or creates odd squares and borders. I have tried it with both Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS2, reinstalled both, and everything, it still happens. I have a few examples.

Left is how it looks in photoshop. Right is how it looks when I open it in MS Paint. Even weirder, when I upload it to the internet, for me it looks the way it should (like in the left image), but I have a friend who ends up seeing it messed up (like in the right image).

This is the weird thick blotching:
http://i26.tinypic.com/ekow0g.png

http://i31.tinypic.com/szjxg3.png

Odd squares & weird border (on my pixel art):
http://i30.tinypic.com/2zyihk9.png

http://i26.tinypic.com/1zl6ukj.png

http://i28.tinypic.com/2rvy4c0.png

What is wrong? How can I fix things? I have tried reinstalling photoshop, and even switching from CS3 back to CS2, nothing seems to fix this problem.

[BillFrey]

How are you saving the original file?

If you're using 'save for web', turn off 'matte'

[WCK]

I've tried using save for web as well as just the plain way of saving it. and I'm saving it as a PNG.

[BillFrey]

I was able to closely replicate your problem by saving for web, png, WITH MATTE (color = eyedropper).

When I turned OFF the matte, the problem disappeared.

[WCK]

well I don't think that's it. When I save, I've tried both 'save for web' as well as the normal way of saving. Both times I saved it with transparency as a PNG, and Matte was not on.