I can get some basic reports to show up on the "View Reports" tab but this following string of mess always shows at the top of any report in that tab:
'); tmpw.document.close(); tmpw.print(); tmpw.close(); }
Is there an issue or should I ignore?
It's an issue.
Looks like javascript code that is showing up in your browser as text when it should not. The code is from the locallib.php file in the block and builds the report page on screen.
Try different browsers & settings to see if this is a browser issue. (If it happens consistently on all browsers and OS, then there may be an issue with that particular file on the server you could extract and replace it; but given this works for other people, as long as that file has not been edited or changed, then it is more likely a browser issue.)
There is a bug reported related to this issue in another context: see
https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-6237