That did it for me too thanks to mjoel and zyspec!

i see a username but i see no Avatar
not even BLANK avatar

i am using the Yogurt module
and thusly have change the code to this

***See line 7 for image source changed path***
$random_member = mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query("SELECT uid, uname, user_avatar FROM xoops_users ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1"));

print "<p align='center'>";
print "<strong>Random member:</strong><br />";
print "<a href='userinfo.php?uid=$random_member[uid]'>$random_member[uname]</a><br />";
print "<img src='./modules/yogurt/images/$random_member[user_avatar]' alt='avatar' />";
print "</p>";