Such a blank page is usually termed WSOD and d.o has a pretty exhaustive checklist for debugging it.

https://drupal.org/node/158043

From the checklist:
1) Enable Error Reporting by adding a snippet of code to your index.php
2) Check  Apache (and PHP) Logs
3) Do not include the closing ?> on a PHP file.
4) Check for PHP4 Syntax Errors and Incompatibility
5) ..
6)..

The list is long. More @ https://drupal.org/node/158043

Cheers
Tanay



On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 4:56 AM, Jamie Holly <hovercrafter@earthlink.net> wrote:
Blank screen is generally an error of some sorts. Check your server
logs. A common cause is output being sent before headers. That can be
caused by echoing something out before the headers are sent, or having a
closing ?> at the end of a PHP file and something after it, even a blank
line.

Jamie Holly
http://hollyit.net

On 1/4/2014 5:54 PM, Roger wrote:
> We have a most peculiar situation.
> While developing a theme in zen starterkit and following tuts and
> videos, etc the user login ceased to function.
> Cannot log in even with localhost/mydrupal/user which is how I normally
> login. All we get is a blank screen.
> Google suggested some overriding code to go into the page.tpl.php, which
> allowed login but returns the new theme screen but no admin even if we
> enter localhost/mydrupal/admin in the url.
> /user is core functionality, file template and css are all available, we
> have not changed any core files.
>
> I used drush to make garland the default theme and tried to drush
> disable the zen theme but both fail. drush returns an error request
> -drush clear-cache drush which in turn returns the same error.
>
> I did drush up to install drupal 7.25 and update modules but it did not
> help.
> Cannot find anything we have done in the dev theme which may relate to
> /user login or admin.
>
> most perplexing.
> How would we solve the lack of admin and why would login cease to function?
>
> Help much appreciated
> Roger

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