Dashboard link gives blank

I have had this problem for some time, and successive upgrades have not resolved it.

If I am in the dashboard, and click on the dashboard link, I end up with a screen that has the menus and a blank white space where the rest of the dashboard should be. To get to the dashboard, I have to remove “index.php?page=index.php” from the URI and energize, whereupon the rest of the dashboard appears.

When I upgrade, I delete the wp-admin and wp-includes directories before installing.