sidebar loading issue: hangs in middle in archive.php

I am running wordpress 2.0, using the default template which I have edited, various plugins in the sidebar, viewing with IE version 6. My level of php knowledge is next to nil – I encountered it for the first time when I set up wordpress.

The problem is: after making some changes in archive.php and sidebar.php, the sidebar hangs anywhere it is supposed to display in pages that use archive.php. It hangs after the following code from sidebar.php displays:

<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>’ ); ?>
<?php /* If this is the frontpage */ if ( is_home() || is_page() ) { ?>
<?php get_links_list(); ?>

Nothing beyond that code displays on the archive.php pages. It all displays perfectly on all the other pages.

This means that even when such a simple thing as a post is being read, the sidebar only partially displays.

Everything was working fine, including the plugins in the sidebar until I started playing around with archive.php

I have tried everything to figure out why the sidebar is not loading after that point -I disabled all the plugins, I even made a backup copy of all the template files, then uploaded a perfectly fresh set of files, but still got the same result, so I put back my customised files since it didn’t make a difference.

I have gone through the files with a fine-tooth comb, and even used comments <!– and –> to isolate various parts of the code, but nothing helps.

Would appreciate if someone could help me.

Thanks