i faced the same problem for my CE1.9, followed the solutions but to no avail.
also, the status for Index and Cache management also didnt appear properly.
I just duplicated this whole Magento from another domain of mine.
PLEASE HELP!
same with magento Cache
Try to remove var folder from the root of the system and check after refresh admin pages, Its working or not if not working please check your system.log to check any error are throws or not.
I had already cleared the var and even flushed the cache many times but still the same..
but now one problem is resolved, because the bg_severity-notice.gif and other gif files were missing from the skin/adminhtml/images folder. but all these images were not in the original Magento installation folder as well, and I had to copied from other places.
Now, the problem persists is the button with 3 'x'. Still couldnt get it resolved.