Blank screen on system configuration in admin panel for Magento

Question

We have encountered a problem with our site.

The system > configuration screen only displays the menu, side menu and footer. When we click on side menu option, the screen remains black and the relevant information does not appear. Please see this link. This is what appears. When we click on any side menu option, the screen is blank

This is causing a major problem as we are unable to access the information for configuring the site.

Kind regards Paul

Answer 1

One issue sometimes forgotten is that after installation of a new module it may be necessary to recompile, that is, if you have enabled compilation in System/Tools/Compilation. Before recompilation, the entire configuration page may remain blank.

Answer 2

First, flush the cache (System > Cache Management).

If this does not resolve your issue, and assuming that you have a staging instance in which to work, you should deactivate all custom modules, adding each back one at a time until you isolate the module(s) involved. Custom modules should be found in app/code/local/* and in app/code/community/*. To do this, turn off config caching in System > Cache Management (or be prepared to refresh this screen with every config change). You can deactivate local modules en masse by switching the <disable_local_modules> flag to "true" in app/etc/local.xml. There is no corresponding feature for community modules. You will need to refresh the System Config view to see if this fixes the problem. If not, revert app/etc/local.xml, and then in app/etc/modules start changing each community module's <active> flag to "false", refreshing the config panel after each, until your issue is resolved. If disabling local modules does work, follow the same process but only for files in the local codePool.

If the above does not work, you will need to diff your core files against a vigin copy of your version of Magento. Core files to diff:

1. app/code/core/*
2. lib/*
3. app/design/adminhtml/*

Also, verify that there are is no Mage namespace under app/code/local and app/code/community. If there is, move it temporarily to rule out its contents as a culprit.