Display Problem With IE7

Running Vista. Have no problem viewing videos in utube and those embedded in sites. But when I log on to certain pages like my earthlink start page, there is a box above my headlines that used to display picture or video(?), I think advertisements. Now it's blank with an x. All other pictures display fine. There are several other sites like cnet.com where I experience this same problem. Are these flash video boxes? How can I correct the problem...thanks for any info...Michelle

 

Are you using any ad blocking software ? Any entries in hosts file ? Spywareblaster or Immunize in Spybot ?

 

No. Have Comodo, Avast only. Did notice one thing tonight, an icon on my links page for ebay has changed to a peace sign - ran virus, malware scans and nothing comes up. Could I be infected with something? What should I use other than what I have to find out?. Thanks...Michelle

 

Could be Malware.

What all utils are running for checking it ?