Problem with adding multiple custom fields – AJAX related?

I’ve run into a consistent – and extraordinarily frustrating – problem using WP’s custom fields.

A site I’m building makes use of custom fields to store information about works of art. When I hand the site off to the client, they need to be able to add pre-defined data fields about the artist – age, location, etc.

In testing, here’s what happens:

I choose a custom field name from the pre-populated drop down. I add a value and hit “Add Custom Field.” The field does not appear. On a normal build, a bit of ajax-y goodness should make the field appear outlined in yellow that fades to white or gray.

If I refresh the page, the field is there.

Here’s what’s more troubling though: If I try to add another field, I again get no immediate response. If I refresh the page, I find that this time the field didn’t add at all.

Oddly enough, if I then click on the “Write” tab, I find that my custom field has been inserted there, in a blank post.

This same behavior happens the same way every time. I’m pretty shocked that I could find no mention of this bug anywhere on the forums or elsewhere online.

I’ve checked my error logs. Nothing. Also, there are no javascript errors being thrown.

Has anyone experienced this?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Matt

ps – I’m running PHP4. Is there any way that could be part of the issue?