diff --git a/IPython/core/splitinput.py b/IPython/core/splitinput.py
index 920d415..ed54775 100644
--- a/IPython/core/splitinput.py
+++ b/IPython/core/splitinput.py
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ def split_user_input(line, pattern=None):
     and the rest.
     """
     # We need to ensure that the rest of this routine deals only with unicode
-    line = py3compat.cast_unicode(line, sys.stdin.encoding or 'utf-8')
+    encoding = py3compat.get_stream_enc(sys.stdin, 'utf-8')
+    line = py3compat.cast_unicode(line, encoding)
 
     if pattern is None:
         pattern = line_split
diff --git a/IPython/frontend/terminal/interactiveshell.py b/IPython/frontend/terminal/interactiveshell.py
index c29c1d2..42fbcfe 100644
--- a/IPython/frontend/terminal/interactiveshell.py
+++ b/IPython/frontend/terminal/interactiveshell.py
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ class TerminalInteractiveShell(InteractiveShell):
 
         for i in range(hlen - hlen_before_cell):
             self.readline.remove_history_item(hlen - i - 1)
-        stdin_encoding = sys.stdin.encoding or "utf-8"
+        stdin_encoding = py3compat.get_stream_enc(sys.stdin, 'utf-8')
         self.readline.add_history(py3compat.unicode_to_str(source_raw.rstrip(),
                                     stdin_encoding))
         return self.readline.get_current_history_length()
diff --git a/IPython/utils/io.py b/IPython/utils/io.py
index 6df4ab6..33ea0cb 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/io.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/io.py
@@ -87,9 +87,9 @@ class IOTerm:
         self.stderr = IOStream(stderr, sys.stderr)
 
 # setup stdin/stdout/stderr to sys.stdin/sys.stdout/sys.stderr
-stdin = IOStream(sys.stdin)
-stdout = IOStream(sys.stdout)
-stderr = IOStream(sys.stderr)
+stdin = sys.stdin if not sys.stdin else IOStream(sys.stdin)
+stdout = sys.stdout if not sys.stdout else IOStream(sys.stdout)
+stderr = sys.stderr if not sys.stderr else IOStream(sys.stderr)
 
 
 class Tee(object):
diff --git a/IPython/utils/py3compat.py b/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
index cc0e220..7909e75 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
@@ -11,14 +11,22 @@ orig_open = open
 def no_code(x, encoding=None):
     return x
 
+# to deal with the possibility of sys.std* not being a stream at all
+def get_stream_enc(stream, default=None):
+    if not hasattr(stream, 'encoding') or not stream.encoding:
+        return default
+    else:
+        return stream.encoding
+
 def decode(s, encoding=None):
-    encoding = encoding or sys.stdin.encoding or sys.getdefaultencoding()
+    encoding = get_stream_enc(sys.stdin, encoding) or sys.getdefaultencoding()
     return s.decode(encoding, "replace")
 
 def encode(u, encoding=None):
-    encoding = encoding or sys.stdin.encoding or sys.getdefaultencoding()
+    encoding = get_stream_enc(sys.stdin, encoding) or sys.getdefaultencoding()
     return u.encode(encoding, "replace")
-    
+
+
 def cast_unicode(s, encoding=None):
     if isinstance(s, bytes):
         return decode(s, encoding)
diff --git a/IPython/utils/text.py b/IPython/utils/text.py
index df836ce..74b334d 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/text.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/text.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ def getdefaultencoding():
     and finally to sys.getdefaultencoding() which is the most conservative option,
     and usually ASCII.
     """
-    enc = sys.stdin.encoding
+    enc = py3compat.get_stream_enc(sys.stdin)
     if not enc or enc=='ascii':
         try:
             # There are reports of getpreferredencoding raising errors