Javascript in Admin Tool Not Loading Properly

Hello,

When I login to the admin tool on my site using 2.8, I noticed none of the CSS or Javascript was working. I used Firefox’s web developer toolbar to “View CSS” and it came back gobbledy-gook (all corrupt).

I replaced all CSS files with fresh ones in the /wp-admin/css/ directory, but that didn’t help at all.

I then decided to try to upgrade to 2.8.1 to see if that would just fix my problem.

When I tried to click on the Upgrade to 2.8.1 link in the footer of the admin tool, I got the error:

Warning: gzuncompress() [function.gzuncompress]: data error in /[my full path]/wp-includes/http.php on line 1792

So I upgraded via my dreamhost account which does the back-up and then replaces the files. That seemed to work, kinda.

CSS was restored, but Javascript (including AJAX, JQuery) are not working in Admin tool.

When I look at the Error Console in Firefox, I find this javascript error:

Error: illegal character
Source File: https://www.jctonline.org/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=1&load=jquery,utils&ver=d24248fe4b0cd62086633fd42ef1019b
Line: 1
Source Code:
?is?H?&????"M????;?a???M???????*?T??e?????y??L$@JU}cf?x+?-H$r9y?e??_

My users have come to rely on the user-friendly nature of the admin tool in wordpress.

How can I get the javascript to come back?

Thanks,
Lori