XP/IE - blank pop-ups, etc.

Got this question from a friend, thought I'd try it here. Any advice would be appreciated...

We have a laptop with XP and IE and a desktop with ME and IE. There are two distinct differences with the laptop when we use IE. The first is that the viewing area for most of the pages is only 50% of the screen (left justified). The second and most frustrating is when we access areas that come up as a pop-up screen (non-advertising types) instead of a redirection, the smaller viewing area comes upbut remains blank. As first we attributed to us being impatient, leaving a cable modem for dial-up, but even trying to wait out a download does not work.