When I have a problem, I check out the search results by opening the interesting links in a seperate tab (quite easy provided your browser supports tabbed browsing - else you can always choose to open in a new window). This way I have no need to 'return' to the search results page.
I agree though, that actually finding relevant information is a pain with the current forum software. I've encountered cases where my initial search turned up nothing, although the topic in question had been discussed elsewhere.
After getting used to the quirks of the search engine I did get better results though.