Disappearing footer

Hi

I'm trying to help someone figure out why a problem is happening. Their cart is version 1.3.8a and has had some custom design work previously done.
They just decided to turn on and use the "what's new" center box but when they do the footer disappears, but only on the main page. When viewing other pages the footer is present.
I set up a test site to try and duplicate the problem by uploading their custom-template/common over-rides as well as the template_default/common tpl's into the custom-template/common
over-ride because editing could have been done to the default files.
This didn't duplicate the problem.

There's a load of other files and not sure where would be the next likely place to start.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

A link to the site in question woukd help a lot.

It sounds like a template issue - are they using a purchased template?

thanks for responding....they have decided to leave things as they are for now.