Web mail displays only boxes with red Xs

Hi all, I am new to this forum, it occurred to me that this is the type of place to go to for this type of problem. I don't know if the problem is browser related or Win98SE related, but I'll post here for starters.

Problem: .gifs and http does not show show normally on some websites. It seems mostly to be a problem with web-based mail sites, for me. Other sites, such as this one, MSN, etc., show normally on my display. What I mean by "normally" is that little pictures should show, or little buttons saying "login ", "BOLD ", etc. should show when you are in the web-based email program--but they don't! What do I get? Little squares with red X's in them--no "login ", not even advertising .gifs. (Of course I really care about seeing the html, not the .gifs.) (I right-clicked them and determined that they were .gifs or http.)

I checked around the site and found one post directly related to this but I can't find it again. (Sorry!) But I don't know if it would have helped. My machine is Win98SE, IE6, 333MHz, 192RAM, and cable broadband. I have done most of the things I remember being suggested to solve this: dumped cookies, temp files, ran online antivirus (was ok), changed Internet options back and forth, disconected firewalls and antivirus, tried Netscape, etc. I even ran my home-made restore CD (BackUpMyPC by Veritas) and that didn't help. BackupPC apparently only restores most, but not all of the old registry files--I still have working newly-installed programs after running it. MSUpdate says that everything is ok. I reinstalled the op system from windows before I ran BackupPC--it didn't help.

I'm at a loss. I am close to reformatting the hard drive, and then reinstalling the system. Before I go that route, what else could I try first? Thanks

 

Try the fixes in the MS KB article, Pictures Are Not Displayed on Web Sites in Internet Explorer.

 

GET--This problem has a very large number of possible solutions. So if Miz' reference does not fix the situation, go here
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=59073#post59073
and follow some of those links.
(Note that a firewall can cause the problem. That is buried in Miz's reference.)
Or you could look here, even if you do not run FrontPage.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307239
I also see that the title of your post refers to Web Mail, whereas your description primarily concerns Web Sites. If the problem is, indeed, with Mail, then, if you are using Outlook Express, click OE Tools|Options|Send tab|HTML Settings and be sure that "Send Pictures in messages" is checked. While this implies it affects only the sending of messages it will also affect seeing pictures when you receive them.

 

problem solved- "x boxes "

Thanks for the help. I reformated and reintstalled the operating system, including the latest MS updates. I get almost all of the coding on every page now--no more boxes with red X's when running IE6. About 99% of the coding seems to be visible, it may be the firewall that keeps off the 1% I don't see but I can live with that.
GET