My default browser is IE and I have the exact same problem.
My system is a Dell 8250, Intel pentium4 mono 2.4, 512meg, video NVIDIA GEforce4 MX420 with 64 meg.
I suspect my video card to blank out the text in the white boxes since it is way under specs.
The rest works fairly well so I'll live with it. My other PC a recent Dell laptop1520 duo and all over spec will not even load WWT it gives an error with DirectX which at is the latest level ; smoke will clear up in few months and everything will start working fine.
good luck.