Apache server Error

Parent: child process exited with status 3221225477 -- Restarting

[barryman9000]

I cannot login to a php page that someone else built. The apache server keeps giving this error:

"Parent: child process exited with status 3221225477 -- Restarting"

No one had made any changes to the server, php, the php pages, or the access database that it's pulling from before we noticed the error. I have re-installed Apache since then, but still get the same error.

Whenever a user tries to login, they receive the "this page cannont be displayed" error page. We are able to access all of the other pages on the site, it's just the index.php page. I've also checked the httpd.conf page, and the DirectoryIndex includes index.html index.html.var index.php

Any ideas?

[coopster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, barryman9000.

Sounds like you are running on a Windows OS. Have you made the recommended modifications to the httpd.conf?

On the Apache download [httpd.apache.org] page you should see the note that states ...

If you are downloading the Win32 distribution, please read these important notes [axint.net].

Also, which version of PHP are you running? I recommend getting up to the latest patch if at all possible.

[barryman9000]

We're running PHP version 4.4.0, Apache 2.0.52, on Windows server 2003. Apparently upgrading our PHP version caused some problems in the past, so we left it.

I haven't made any changes to the httpd.conf file, because all the other pages on the site have been running fine for the past year. As of Jan. 3, the index.php page (which pulls from and Access db) won't load, but "index.php" is included on the htaccess page.

Was there a windows update that could have caused this? Any known problems with Apache and MS Access?

What does this error mean:
"Parent: child process exited with status 3221225477 -- Restarting"?

[coopster]

I honestly do not know. I can tell you how I might troubleshoot it though. First, try using a standard PHP page, without accessing the MS Access database. If that works fine then you have effectively narrowed it down to the ODBC call.

I am not certain if a Windows upgrade would have caused anything or not. You could always try a rollback to see, or whatever that feature is called in Windows ... System Restore I believe. Otherwise, double-check the information offered in the above link regarding running Apache on Windows. Those environment variables and recommendations are offered by the developers for a reason.

[barryman9000]

Thanks a lot Coopster, we're on the same page.

I know the Apache settings are correct because the other pages are working, and I've been focusing on the db. The only problem is the other pages on the site pull from the same db, using the same odbc connection.

As far as I know, the system restore for server 2003 is only "Last known good," and we've restarted it since we noticed the problem, but again, good thinking.

One last question though: If there was a problem with the odbc call, would we still get the "page cannot be displayed" error? Even without logging in, and just clicking the submit button, that's the page that loads.

Thanks again

[jdMorgan]

This appears to be a bug in PHP, possibly fixed in the most recent version. Perhaps this search [google.com] might be of some help.

Jim

[edit] Fixed malformed link [/edit]

[edited by: jdMorgan at 5:33 pm (utc) on Jan. 11, 2006]

[barryman9000]

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate everyone's efforts. We ended up locating the problem. In case you're wondering:

The site has a php "sign up" page that writes to an Access db. Someone had registered by entering Chinese characters instead of regular English text. Everytime any user would try to access their account through the login page, php would query the "password" column of the db. I guess that since Access didn't know what to do with the characters, it would kill the service.

We found this just by scrolling through the db in Access. Once we hit that persons record, it would kill Access.

Thanks again!