At least you found the CPU usage problem. Skins from previous versions are not comaptible with 1.10. Unfortunatly there will be another change in skins in the upcoming 2.0 version. It is said this will be the last major upgrade for the skins, so hopefully we have dealt with this problem for good. (what is the meaning of for good when talking about software projects?)

The skin that resembles the Classic skin most is the Custom skin. If you open the css (called custom.css in ../blog/skins/custom/) file you find a line commented out: line 192:

	/* border: 1px solid #78a; */

undo the uncommenting and upload the file.

In this case you might also try to upload the css file from the Classic skin to the /blogs/skins/custom/ folder, replacing the custom.css already in this folder. i am not sue if this is an improvement, so make a backup first.

In the [url=http://skins.b2evolution.net/]skins gallery[/url] you find many appealing skins. I can't imagine there's not one for you. Make sure you choose a 1.9.+ version.

Good luck

Thanks, Afwas. I'm no so sure I found the cause of the CPU usage problem, but I hope so.

The upgrading experiencie was so traumatic for me that I do not want to know about more upgradings. If I accepted to upgrade it was because EdB told me that this was the solution against spammers, and he was right. If not, I'd still be using version 0.9 + Classic, ... and happy about that.

I really don't understand what you propose is good for. Is it to make Custom look pretty much like Classic?

I like Clssic because it takes advantage of the full monitor screen while Custom is not displaying puctures so well. Besides that, I like the sobrious look (no figures, backgrond colors and so on), and in revising the whole skin catalog I found no way to determine if some skin is or is not 1.9+ version compatible. Where is supposed to be that info?

If you looked more closely: here is [url=http://skins.b2evolution.net/?blog=7&page=1&paged=3]Classic for 1.9[/url].

THANKS A LOT!

Skins for 1.9 will work in 1.10 is why there is no skins for 1.10 listed anywhere. FYI eh?

Thanks again. I'll try the Classic for 1.9 expecting no problems.

Oops! I've just found out that this specific Classic skin version, the 1.9, found here
http://skins.b2evolution.net/?blog=7&page=1&paged=3

is exactly the one I installed when upgrading to Florida, and then the one that supposedly caused the overload problem in my hosting CPU.

I'd have a hard time believing the skin is the cause of the problem, but you can do some testing of stuff to see if the server load goes down. For example turn off public skin switching (if you have it enabled) and compare 'custom' to 'classic' to see if there are features in classic that are not in custom, then remove them from classic. BTW 'classic' used to be 'custom'.

Anyway unless the skin is extremely complicated it's not likely that it is the cause of the server load. Work with your host though. For example you could say to them that you want to know if the next 24 hours looks normal or bad after you switch to the classic skin. Then back to custom, then back again. If the server load doesn't change then it's not the skin.

It is POSSIBLE that you were getting hammered by a spammer that didn't get through but did chew up tons of resources during the timeframe when the server load got too high for your host? I don't know for sure, but I would bet someone else's last dollar that it isn't an issue with your skin.

Thanks, EdB. I'm not 100% convinced either that the skin was the guilty, but I'm not a tech guy. I need a real tech one to do what you suggest that seems to me very reasonable.

I al thought about a spammer being the guilty, but no found a way to discover that.