Simple Machines Community Forum

SMF Support => SMF 2.0.x Support => Topic started by: sam casey on January 09, 2018, 06:44:45 PM

Title: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: sam casey on January 09, 2018, 06:44:45 PM
hello i had two smf forums , my main forum as yet is still on smf 2.0.13 and is running fine . i have a mirror of my main site but naturally it has a different url . we planned to change the mirror site to a completely new site with new topics of interest . we did that and had started building the site . however we had a problem with the mirror that we could not resolve  , so we thought its an old site and failing all we can get rid of it and start afresh with a brand new smf install , and move content from the old site that has a problem to the newly installed forum . however as a final resort we thought that reverting back to an older smf version MIGHT resolve the problem . we reverted back several versions one at a time , the site still worked but the problem it had did not resolve .

so we installed a new smf forum , version 2.0.15 .

1/ so our main site runs perfectly .

2/ our old mirror site suddenly went to a white screen , the url still shows in the web browser but we get nothing but a white screen . as this happened so suddenly we thought maybe the host was doing some work and that the problem would resolve itself . it hasnt .

3/ as the old mirror site had a problem anyway we decided to stop using it .

4/ we installed a brand new smf site 2.0.15 at the weekend . this worked for several days up till today . we had a new url / domain name for the new site but we had not assigned the new domain or pointed the site at the new url untill today . however having completed the above today ALL WAS WELL , the forum worked , it had the correct forum name and correct url  / domain , all was well . however shortly after that AS WITH THE OLD MIRROR SITE the new site went to a white screen .

i have spoken to my host , they said they looked at the situation and they said that there was no problem on their side .

so i was wondering can anyone here help me with this ? . if i was not as clear as i could have been above i am happy to offer more information .


i should mention ( i dont know if it is relevant ) that we had a new domain for our site (we planned on using the old mirror site ) so we ORIGINALLY assigned the new domain to the old mirror site . and we pointed the old site to the new domain . HOWEVER as the old mirror had a problem we had to change that . so we reverted the old mirror site back to the old name and old domain name . and we changed the host settings so that our brand new smf install pointed to the new domain .

i have ran repair_settings in both cases and ensured that all settings are ok . but as i said above both sites have a white screen . i appreciate any help . thanks
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: Kindred on January 09, 2018, 07:04:30 PM
https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/What_the_white_screen_of_death_means
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: sam casey on January 09, 2018, 07:37:06 PM
thanks for your reply and the link . i read it carefully . if im understanding correctly the link said the error occurs usually if code has been edited or if a mod has been installed . the new site is a new install just 3 days old and i know that no code has been edited at all . but i do know that an admin installed a mod called sa chat today , and that is the mod that the error mentions  .

can i uninstall or delete a mod via the host / c panel ? , reason i ask is naturally as my site only shows a white screen i cant access admin cp to uninstall the mod in the conventional manner . is there a way to do this ? if you can help me it would be great .
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: SaltedWeb on January 09, 2018, 10:27:07 PM
Is the install manual or did you use Cpanels softolisious( spelling)  installer?
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen on January 10, 2018, 04:29:32 AM
Quote from: sam casey on January 09, 2018, 07:37:06 PM
thanks for your reply and the link . i read it carefully . if im understanding correctly the link said the error occurs usually if code has been edited or if a mod has been installed . the new site is a new install just 3 days old and i know that no code has been edited at all . but i do know that an admin installed a mod called sa chat today , and that is the mod that the error mentions  .
What is the exact error?
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: Kindred on January 10, 2018, 07:10:18 AM
Wait... you didn't mention any error (or did you look in the errorlog file?)

If it is not a full white scree, e.g. there is an actual error message on the screen, then the problem is much more clear -- include the error message, as Lex asked.
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: sam casey on January 10, 2018, 08:50:46 AM
i managed to sort the problem guys thanks for your help .

on one browser it was just a white screen , on another it was a 501 error . i checked the error logs and the problem was a mod called sa chat .

it was installed via the admin cp .

thanks again guys to all who helped here , your help was greatly appreciated and helped me sort the problem out .
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: sam casey on January 15, 2018, 12:41:22 PM
hi guys sadly im back and ive got a white screen of death again . but this time the error message is different

[14-Jan-2018 09:00:13 America/Denver] PHP Fatal error:  require_once(): Failed opening required '/home1/boxkings/public_html/conspiraciestalkco/BotBanish/bot/Language/BotBanishLanguage.english

can anyone advise me on this error , the causes and how to resolve it .

now here is the thing , i never logged out of the forum , so i can in fact see the forum and access admin control panel etc . however the other admin did log out and he cant see the forum at all . so at this point i can access admin cp and the forum but he cant . so i can only assume that anyone not logged in also cant see the forum .

i appreciate any help and advice on this matter . as far as i am aware today , all that was changed was that the other admin attempted to install several themes and they failed to install , and an ez block was showing recent posts was put at the bottom of the site . other than that i am unaware of any other modifications . thanks guys
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: SaltedWeb on January 15, 2018, 01:27:37 PM
 Just thinking outloud here, can you why logged in remove all the themes accept the default SMF once you do that it should revert back to the main forum. Make theme backups if you have access and if you have done theme edits. I had a buggy theme one day it was keeping out of areas
I was trying a new theme removed the theme and everything was oo. Just throwing that out there.,
Title: Re: white screen problem on two sites
Post by: sam casey on January 15, 2018, 06:04:10 PM
thanks for the reply saltedweb . it appears the other admin installed a mod the other day , the mod mentioned in the error . he went in an uninstalled the mod and the error was fixed and the white screen is gone and the site works . he said he only installed it as he was told or read that it was smf 2.0.15 compatible . why exactly it caused the error i dont know but all seems ok now . and we do seem to still have some issues with themes not installing but 4 or 5 work fine which will suffice .

apologies to the earlier people who replied and helped such as kindred etc , it seems i forgot to post the error message that i had orginally that caused the white screen of death , it was a php fatal error similar to the most recent one .

thanks again for all the great help . i have another question about another forum that i would like to be able to fix , but i will start a new post for that is its a completely different error . thanks again