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IE7 bug that causes blank pages

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IE 7

I was at my in-laws house and my blog wouldn’t show up in IE 7 on their computer. Hmm. It would just sit there and spin, and all you would see is a blank page.

After some digging, this isn’t a rare thing:

Symptoms

When you open a Web page in Windows Internet Explorer 7, the page is blank. However, if you refresh the Web page, its contents may appear.

Cause

This problem may occur when either of the following conditions is true:

  • The Web page uses the <SCRIPT> tag.
  • The Web page uses multibyte character set (MBCS) characters. For example, the Web page contains Japanese characters.

To fix the bugger I actually reinstalled Windows Script Host, rebooted, and all worked.

However, how many people are going to work that out / bother. Ouch.

4 Responses to “IE7 bug that causes blank pages”

  1. anjan bacchu Says:

    hi there,

    I got the HANG problem on your blog yesterday using IE 6 as well.

    BR,
    ~A

  2. Brent Ashley Says:

    I’ve been having a week full of similarly intractable Windows problems that all seem to be remedied (resolved? – mebbe, mebbe not) by obtuse magical incantations or complete reinstallations of seemingly unrelated pieces. My blog post url says it all:

    http://www.ashleyit.com/blogs/brentashley/2008/02/01/not-nearly-enough-rope-but-im-almost-ready-to-hang-myself/

  3. Martin Says:

    This sounds a lot like another IE bug, that is much more likely to cause issues.

    Bug 153 – Self Closing Script Tag Issues in IE:
    http://webbugtrack.blogspot.com/2007/08/bug-153-self-closing-script-tag-issues.html

    Then again this is IE so it could be almost any bug!

  4. Corinee Says:

    Pardon my lameness. :) I have a brand new HP lap top pavilion. It has windows vista premium home edition on it. I use to get a blank page out of no where while on the internet and have to ctrl esc to get to my desk top. Now it just shows up as an icon on my task bar so I right click it then close it.

    I chatted with the manufacturer and they said to reset my internet explorer which really messed things up and I had to restore. Has anyone any comments they’d like to make “in plain english” that would help get rid of this problem?
    I’ve ran system cleaner, spyware and security however I don’t think this is a security issue, but not sure. “Thanks so much.”

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