Internet Explorer Running Slow - Loading Images

My IE7's been running really slow starting this past week. I don't know what the cause is exactly. I can't figure out if it's the IE software on the PC or if it has something to do with the internet connection. I've run the following to diagnose my problem: NAV 2007 - No Viruses Webroos SpySweeper - No Spyware Optonline speedcheck Utility (when I can get it to run) - the results are very good 13-15mbps down and ~1.5mbps up. I would've posted this last night, but I couldn't get the page to load and even the optonline homepage sometimes wouldn't load. Also, I've noticed that images aren't loading onto the web pages. Just getting a box with an "x" in it. Don't remember if that is an IE security setting that i just need to allow or a an invasion to my system. I reset the IE7 settings to clear anything within IE, but that just made me lose my settings and IE still ran slow and inconsistently. I've checkd the ADD/Remove list and the list of folders within the program files folder and I've found nothing bad has been installed on the sly. Not really sure if this is a problem with optonline's signal or if I've gotten something on my PC that just isn't getting found by NAV and spysweeper. I'm trying to hold off on restoring my system image file, but if I must. I'd like totry to diagnose this if I can.