REALLY slow graphics loading

[Askari]

As of this afternoon, my internet explorer is taking
FOREVER to load graphics of any sort. My webmail page,
which previously took only a fraction of a second to
load, now takes minutes. Similar results happen with any
pages with extensive graphics. But download speeds seem
unaffected, since I was able to download a 4MB program in
less time than it took to load the webpage I got it
from. I tried reinstalling windows explorer from the XP
CD, and also doing a system restore to a time before the
problem started. Neither had any effect. I'm at a loss
for what to do, but if I can't get this fixed I will be
unable to do anything involving the internet, including
email! Please help me!

 

[Jeffrey]

This, frankly, is a common problem that seems to be
recurring over and over again. There are many possible
causes. Chances are, you have a spyware/adware issue.
There are several great programs that can help eliminate
these programs from your computer.

But first, go into task manager and see how much memory is
being used. If it is more than your total RAM, then you
need to get some more RAM. I think that 512MB is really
the level needed for today's operating systems.
Increasing your RAM will greatly improve your performance.

Download and run both Ad-aware (created by
http://www.lavasoft.de)
(http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=506) & Spybot
(http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22
262,00.asp). This will eliminate most of the spyware
running in the background and should speed things up a
bit. If this doesn't work, let me know and we can go to
phase 2.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey