Just say no to the red x !

November 12, 2006 7:53 AM

I have a ( WinXP using IE6 )webpage image viewing problem.

First, I should admit that when it come to computers, I am stooopid, so please consider this when replying.

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop that has worked fine for a year. (Win XP running IE6) For the past couple of days, I have had trouble seeing some images, but not all, on websites. Most of them seem to be gifs, but I can see other gifs, and it appears that some of the images are jpegs. I tried system restore to Nov 9, but the message said there were no changes, even though I did download IE7 yesterday, after going to Windows Update. I ran One Button Checkup, but it still is happening. any ideas ?

posted by lobstah to computers & internet (9 comments total)

It might help if you gave links to some of the pages causing problems. Also you should install Firefox (a trivial process) and see if the pages cause problem there also.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 8:31 AM on November 12, 2006

Can you provide examples of images you can't view? Have you tried right-clicking and saving them to see if you can view them in any other app? Plus, try Firefox to see if you can view them in a different browser.
posted by theora55 at 8:31 AM on November 12, 2006

Some examples : The AskMe logo sometimes wont show, and sometimes it has a red x visable on top of it

At a forum I visit ( I think it's a PHP based) I can't see some of the buttons or any of the animated smilies.

I may try Firefox at some time, but I'm used to IE, and want to solve this problem if possible.
posted by lobstah at 8:54 AM on November 12, 2006

Re: the AskMe logo...the logo still shows below the red x, but now it displays normally
posted by lobstah at 8:57 AM on November 12, 2006

My first guess is that one of IE's bizarre security settings is messing with you. Have a poke around under Tools->Options->Security and see if there are any image-related settings that make no sense.

My other standard cure-all for many kinds of IE misbehavior is clearing all temporary files (there's a button for that under Tools->Options as well).

And do try Firefox. Unless you're an absolutely hardcore keyboard-shortcuts-only IE user, there's very little in it to annoy, and much to enjoy.
posted by flabdablet at 2:26 PM on November 12, 2006

It might be an IE issue with .png files. More info here. In which case switching your browser will help.
posted by spacelux at 2:55 PM on November 12, 2006

I guess clearing the temp files did it...seems to be working fine now. Thanks to all who answered, and yes, I WILL check out Firefox
posted by lobstah at 5:32 AM on November 13, 2006

#lobstah: I WILL check out Firefox

It is not necessary to switch to Firefox (though many advocate that). Just having a second browser available for occasions helps you trouble shoot. The first question for a seeming browser or webpage problem is "does it look like that in the other browser?"
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 6:19 AM on November 13, 2006

A final thought: Never, never never trust System Restore. I have never actually been able to make it do anything useful. When I've tried to use it to roll back installation of programs, I usually find the new Program Files folder is still there and taking up space; using it to roll back the creation of new user accounts just leaves a godawful mess; and using it to try to reinstall software that I've just carelessly uninstalled (before making sure I had access to the original installation media) simply fails. I hate System Restore. I think it should be called System Damage.
posted by flabdablet at 3:05 PM on November 13, 2006