Error 500: Internal Server Error - On NEW threads

[valis1952]

Had a bit of a disaster a few days ago, but thanks to this forum, virtually everything is back up and running.

However, although there is no issue posting to existing threads, when anyone attempts to start a new one, there is a long period while nothing seems to happen, then the screen reports:

Error 500: Internal Server Error



Then once you go back into the forum, the post has been made okay, and there's no issue with further posts in the new thread.

I'm getting a daily error_log compiled at the moment. What do I look for? I tried searching it for "Error 500: Internal Server Error", but can't find anything like it.

Thx in advance.

[Kindred]

I suggest you check with your host. They should be able to tell you what is triggering the server error.

[LiroyvH]

Is the waiting time really significant? As in 30+ secs or so?
If that's the case, you're likely getting the 500 error because the php handler gives up as it reaches it's execution time limit; and then Apache can't do much else other than throwing a 500 as it doesn't know what to do with the prematurely ended execution.
Can have a variety of causes (usually code, but also I/O problems...), host may be able to see why indeed; but it might help to specifically look for issues like that and see if it can be debugged from there if it's the case.

[valis1952]

Yes, waiting time could be around the 30+ seconds.

I can now get the error_log, but just looking for "Error 500", etc, turns up nothing.

What am I looking for?

[margarett]

If it was code, you should see something like this:

Code Select Expand

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in ..................
But you would not see an error 500 in this case because PHP "kills" the script in a controlled fashion.

I would suggest you to duplicate your database, then load a fresh set of files to a temporary folder.
Copy Settings.php and Settings_bak.php to that temporary location and run repair_settings in it.
You will have a duplicate setup of your forum, where you can check if the issue still happens even with clean files. That should allow you to check if it's something related to your forum code of not...

[valis1952]

I'm reluctant to copy and reinstall at the moment, but I did extract this from the error_log:


[Wed Mar 11 02:30:40 2015] [error] [client xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] FastCGI: comm with (dynamic) server "/hsphere/shared/php54/bin/php" aborted: (first read) idle timeout (60 sec), referer: http://myforum.xxx/forum/index.php?action=post2;start=0;board=14
[Wed Mar 11 02:30:40 2015] [error] [client xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] FastCGI: incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server "/hsphere/shared/php54/bin/php", referer: http://myforum.xxx/forum/index.php?action=post2;start=0;board=14
[Wed Mar 11 02:30:41 2015] [error] [client xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] File does not exist: /hsphere/local/home/valis/MyForum.xxx/forum/default_html
[Wed Mar 11 02:40:44 2015] [error] [client xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] FastCGI: comm with (dynamic) server "/hsphere/shared/php54/bin/php" aborted: (first read) idle timeout (60 sec), referer: http://myforum.xxx/forum/index.php?action=post;board=1.0
[Wed Mar 11 02:40:44 2015] [error] [client xx.xxx.xxx.xxx] FastCGI: incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server "/hsphere/shared/php54/bin/php", referer: http://myforum.xxx/forum/index.php?action=post;board=1.0


Is this anything to do with the issue?

[margarett]

It seems related because it has action=post/post2, although the timeout should be 60 seconds, not 30.
Do you have any MODs that affect posting? Or a list of MODs?

[valis1952]

MODs?

Here:



Thx

[valis1952]

Sorry to post again ... it appears to be Akismet.

[margarett]

It is possible, yes. If there is a script in place that tries to connect to an outside service and doesn't time out before PHP does, you can have such issues...

[Kindred]

Akisemet is mostly useless anyway. ..

Btw, one pet peeve of mine. . Why do people post a screen shot when asked for a mod list? Please use TEXT when posting information. Screen shots should onlh be used to illustrate an error or request, not to convey textusl details.

[valis1952]

Sorry to feed your peeve.

But, thanks for everyone's help.