Table causing IE to go into compatibility view mode (ASP.NET)

I have a table with 3 rows, each with an ASP.NET panel with a gridview in it. For some reason, this is causing IE8 to go into compatibility view mode, which isn't really ideal. If I change the table to 3 seperate divs, this works but if I use divs som开发者_如何学Ce functionality (i.e. max height) doesn't work as it does on tables. I've also tried 3 seperate tables but to no avail.

I would post code but it's on another machine at the moment, I'm just wondering if anyone has ever come across an issue like this.

EDIT: For both of your questions, I do have a valid doctype(XHTML 1.0 transitional) and there are the only data in the tables is in td tags.

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As pointed out by @Inrbob, you must have a valid doctype at the top of your html. Besides check element nesting carefully - you can not put div directly under <table> or <tr>; it must be within <td>.

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I've narrowed the problem down to my max-height attribute - I've made a new post in light of this discovery, but thanks all for your help