Admin elements missing

If I haven’t published or updated any posts in more than two weeks, when I go to the posts page in WordPress it shows up blank — once the header loads, it just stops loading the page. If I look at the source code it loads until it hits the div #wp-body, then just stops — no php errors or anything.

If I publish a new post everything shows up again. If I save a draft of a post, it loads only the draft. It appears to close the table and toolbars, but again, if I look at the source code it just stops loading at the point where the previous posts should be listed.

At the top of the toolbar it gives the full number of items and says it’s displaying everything. If you filter by any category other than Published you can see the posts. If you try to filter by Published, though, you get a blank page under the header again.

If I log in, then go to any published post, I can edit it, so it’s not as if I can’t access the content at all. But this is annoying and I’m really puzzled. I build a lot of WordPress sites and child themes for my clients; none of them have mentioned this happening to them but I don’t want to have to just tell them I’m clueless.

I’m on a MacBook Pro, but it does the same thing no matter which browser or platform I’m on (I have three instances of Parallels with IE 7, 8 and 9).

I have the latest version of WordPress (3.1.3). Everything works just fine unless I don’t post anything for more than two weeks.

Also, when it’s doing this the Screen Options tab doesn’t work in any of the windows.

Finally, the Menus page doesn’t work. The Theme Locations and Custom links boxes load, but then the page just stops loading. Again, no php errors showing.

Anyone else seen any of these things?