How to troubleshoot hotmail problems including blank pages and login redirects

popowich · Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Hello,

Many Hotmail members are reporting problems with their accounts loading to a blank page or redirecting to a blank page since the recent Hotmail service upgrades. There are several troubleshooting steps that you can take to resolve this problem. Some solutions are based on fixing a problem reaching or logging into Hotmail.com, while others are aimed at fixing a spyware or virus problem on your local computer and are unrelated to the service upgrades. Please try all of the steps below, in order, until one of them works for you. As time passes the usefulness of the steps below will change. When one of the solutions below fixes a problem for you please reply and let us know which step helped you so we can keep the most helpful troubleshooting steps at the top of the list. Thank you.

Login to the secure Hotmail login page at https://login.live.com
Login from another computer to http://account.live.com

If you can not login from either other computer go here: How to recover a lost Hotmail password / How to regain control of a hacked account

If you can login from the second computer try the following steps on the first computer :

Clear your web browser cache.
Make sure cookies are enabled and clear your cookies.
Update your Adobe Flash player.
Force a page refresh. After logging in and landing on the blank page, hold down the control key on your keyboard and while holding it down press the F5 key on your keyboard.
Internet Explorer Users: Restore the default web browser security levels.
If you use Internet Explorer try using Mozilla Firefox instead. Download and install the latest Firefox and then use Firefox to go to Hotmail.com
Check your Anti-Virus software and make sure it is up to date. If you do not have an anti-virus program I recommend installing Avast personal edition.
Update and run your anti-spyware program. If you do not have a program that checks your computer for spyware I recommend installing, updating, and running a full scan of your computer with Spybot S&D. You will need to scroll down that page a little bit to find the download link.
Do you have other security/firewall software installed such as Zone Alarm or BitDefender. Try downloading and installing the latest version. If you have already have the current version try reinstalling it.
Reset your web browser privacy and security settings to the defaults.
If you use Internet Explorer, download and reinstall the latest version of Internet Explorer. After upgrading / reinstalling Internet Explorer, try going to Hotmail.com and see if you can login.
Instead of using your ISP's DNS servers use the OpenDNS servers.
Sometimes Hotmail is the problem, try waiting an hour and try to login again by going to Hotmail.com.
You probably tried already, but if not, try rebooting your computer.

If you are having a different Hotmail problem that is not related to logging in please create a new thread in our Hotmail Support Forum.

Lorena · Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been working on this for two days and your number one suggestion cleared up the problem instantly. I really appreciate your help (and so fast too)!

Lorena

islandlady91 · 4 Weeks Ago

Thank you for your response. I have done most of what you suggested, but I would be interested in trying a different DNS. Since you gave fair warning, I will wait until the end of next week since I am in the middle of an online course and a lot of that program is not compatible with my Mac, so after I finish I can afford to take that risk.

popowich · 4 Weeks Ago

Two commonly used public DNS resolver services are the open DNS and Google DNS resolvers.

Open DNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Google DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Extra software is not needed on your computer to use the IP's above.

-Raymond

islandlady91 · 4 Weeks Ago

Thank you, I will give that a try and let you know how it works. I'm not using Hotmail as much as I was, but I still definitely use it a lot though.