On your good picture Computer Go to Control Panel>Display>
Settings. Check 'em out. Then go to the same place on bad picture Computer . Compare settings. Just a guess. I know nothing. Grady

On both computers the resolution is set as high as it will go. Anything else to try? I read about a web accelerator, but don't know if that's what's causing it, or if it is, what to do about it.

You must have a web accelerator that is degrading the graphics, that's how they gain speed loading pages.
I hate them, not much gained as far as speed and not worth the degraded graphics.
The accelerators are adjustable, but even at the lowest settings, picture quality is screwed up.
Either AOL or your Internet Service Provider gave it to you, unless you're using the Google Web Accelerator.
There should be an icon in the system tray.

Thanks, Randy. I know this is going to sound ignorant, but is the system tray the line of little icons at the bottom right of the screen? If so, there's one for AOL, Norton, Windows Sidebar, Vongo (never heard of that before), Synaptics Pointing Device (I guess that's the mouse I plugged into the USB port), No Battery Detected, one that says Currently Connected to: the Internet, and Speaker Volume. If there's somewhere else to look, please tell me where it might be.

Yes, that's the system tray where all the little icons are.

AOL uses a web accelerator called 'TopSpeed'. Here is how you can turn it off.
Click the 'Settings' tab on the AOL toolbar.

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I opened the TopSpeed tab, but it only had 3 choices. They were "compress graphics when I don't have a high-speed connection", "always compress graphics" and "never compress graphics". I had already made sure the "never compress graphics" box was checked. I couldn't find an option to turn TopSpeed off, so I searched for "turn off top speed" in AOL help. There were instructions for turning it off, but at the bottom it said this:
"Note: The TopSpeed® / AOL® Web Graphics Compression feature on AOL® 9.0 VR cannot be turned off or uninstalled; the client will not function properly without it." This notebook came with Vista, and AOL 9.0 VR is the only AOL that will work on it, so I guess I'm stuck with sorry graphics. I should have looked for an old one with XP, I guess. On my regular computer with XP I have the "never compress graphics" box checked and it's fine.

Can't you use another browser? You can still use AOL for free for mail. I do but I use Firefox as a browser.

Jane

On my computer before the XP, I downloaded Firefox but couldn't use it for listing items on eBay, so I never downloaded it on the XP and I haven't on this notebook. I might try that on this notebook and maybe the graphics will look better. I just tried changing to "always compress graphics" and there was no difference in the pictures. I thought they would have been worse. I didn't restart the computer or anything, just clicked "save", but then changed it back to "never compress graphics" and saved again.

I would think you would have a Brightness and Contrast
adjustment for your screen.

The brightness and contrast is fine, I think. It's the internet graphics that are so bad. Like the resolution is not high enough. I downloaded Firefox and so far I've just looked at my eBay listings. There is a huge improvement in the pictures. They might not be quite as good as on my regular computer, but it would be close. I think my regular computer has TopSpeed, because I think I remember seeing that word on there before, but setting it to never compress graphics worked fine for it. Or maybe it's turned off and I don't know it. Thanks for the help. I would still rather have XP than Vista.