Ok, I just went through this problem for several months,
and after reading many posts on different newsgroups, I
finally found the fix for my problem (which may or may not
be the fix for yours). The problem that caused the red x's
in my browser was a little culprit program
called "cfd.exe" It's the Broadjump client foundation
software that many cable internet and DSL providers supply
to their customers as part of the installation CD-ROM.
This program is nasty on Win98, and my understanding is
that it does even nastier things when it's run on Win XP.
The gist of it is that it's labeled as a problem solving
utility, but it's really disguised spyware. It CAUSES
problems, let alone solve them. And it hogs massive
amounts of resources. If you happen to have this program,
don't connect to the internet through it. It causes the
red x problem and it completely slows down your browsing
speed. Hope that helps.

Right, I think your problem may lie in disabled images,
While in Internet Explorer, Click 'Tools' in the top menu
followed by 'Internet options', Then a new box will
appear, Move on over to the 'Advanced' section and click
into it, After this you have to scroll down until you see
a subtitle 'Multimedia', Then once you get there, Scroll
down a little more and look for the 'Show Pictures' box,
Then tick it!
And that should sort out all of your problems