Headers already sent

My 1.3.8a zen cart installation has a problem. It works fine until you try to check out an order & reach the /index.php?main_page=checkout_payment page, the page seems to hang (blank page) & I can see the browser stop/refresh icon (browser is Chrome) sort of looping round.

I've installed the debug utility & it mentions the following files in the txt file detailed below. The sites been working fine for ages & I've not edited either of the files below. I realise that these sort of errors can be caused by extra space at the end of the files, but I've not carried out any editing of these files.

I have edited both of the configure.php files & will be replacing these as my next step, but I'd love some advice or pointers as to what could be stopping the cart from processing the order. If I view the source of "index.php?main_page=checkout_payment" the page has only half loaded too.

[04-May-2011 13:34:43] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home2/tortoise/public_html/store/includes/languages/english/Tortoisedirect/meta_tags.php:1) in /home2/tortoise/public_html/store/includes/init_includes/init_templates.php on line 78
[04-May-2011 13:34:43] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home2/tortoise/public_html/store/includes/languages/english/Tortoisedirect/meta_tags.php:1) in /home2/tortoise/public_html/store/includes/init_includes/init_templates.php on line 78
[04-May-2011 13:34:43] PHP Warning:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home2/tortoise/public_html/store/includes/languages/english/Tortoisedirect/meta_tags.php:1) in /home2/tortoise/public_html/store/includes/init_includes/init_templates.php on line 78

If you scroll to the bottom of the page you'll find other threads that already address this type of problem. And your warning message tells you the file and even the line within that file where your problem is located.

Look for blank space(s) or blank line(s) after the closing php tag ?> in the file:

includes/languages/english/Tortoisedirect/meta_tags.php

I'm grateful for your help, but could you offer an explanation/guess as to why these files would need editing when I've not been anywhere near them?

Most likely a problem during the upload to your site. I suspect that the named file is missing the first character.

could you offer an explanation/guess as to why these files would need editing when I've not been anywhere near them?

Well, files which previously worked must either have been edited or else restored from a backup (either by you or your hosting company).

A highly possible explanation, given that you are using the out-of-date 1.3.8a version, is that the site may have been hacked and the files modified by the hacker.

Vger

Related FAQ article: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=87