If you get a red x like this: , that's the browser's indication that it tried to download a picture but was unable to. If instead you get this little icon: that's what the browser uses to indicate that it's still downloading the picture, but hasn't gotten around to trying (because it's busy download other items on the page) or at least hasn't yet given up. Be patient, and you'll soon either see the image or the red x.
What if ALL you get is red X's for all pictures on all sites?
Most browsers allow you to turn off downloading pictures completely as a way to download only the text of a website faster. The first step would be to check to make sure that's configured properly. In Internet Explorer, that's in Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, and then in the Multimedia section of the list, there's an item Show Pictures.
If that's set properly to show pictures, then you might check to see if you have any ad-blocking or [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]content [COLOR=blue ! important]filtering [/COLOR][COLOR=blue ! important]software[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] installed. Sometimes they can erroneously start blocking everything that isn't text.