Windows 7 XAMPP - Can't start apache

July 1, 2015 6:31 AM

I have xampp installed on windows 7 but I've never been able to get apache working. When I press the netstat button it shows nothing running on port 80, the logs are completely empty and I don't see anything in the windows event viewer (although I can't seem to get it to show all events by date which it used to do by default, so I could be missing something)

This is what the log shows when trying to start apache:

14:27:00 [Apache] Attempting to start Apache app...
14:27:00 [Apache] Status change detected: running
14:27:01 [Apache] Status change detected: stopped
14:27:01 [Apache] Error: Apache shutdown unexpectedly.
14:27:01 [Apache] This may be due to a blocked port, missing dependencies,
14:27:01 [Apache] improper privileges, a crash, or a shutdown by another method.
14:27:01 [Apache] Press the Logs button to view error logs and check
14:27:01 [Apache] the Windows Event Viewer for more clues
14:27:01 [Apache] If you need more help, copy and post this
14:27:01 [Apache] entire log window on the forums

posted by missmagenta to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Turn off the local (on this computer) firewall? Something could be getting in the way.
posted by deezil at 6:41 AM on July 1, 2015

Response by poster: Still the same with the firewall off
posted by missmagenta at 6:46 AM on July 1, 2015

Check your Windows Services to see if IIS is running (World Wide Web Publishing Service). It may have already claimed port 80 for itself.
posted by Eddie Mars at 6:55 AM on July 1, 2015

Response by poster: There's nothing on port 80, I even tried changing the port to 8080 and it still wont run.
posted by missmagenta at 6:59 AM on July 1, 2015

Unhelpful error message-- could be anything. There are a couple stackexchange threads on this- all with different solutions.

My problem was that in httpd.conf the DocumentRoot and entries were pointing to non-existing folders.

I had the same issue, and it turns out I forgot to run setup_xampp.bat

posted by Maxwell_Smart at 7:12 AM on July 1, 2015

Response by poster: It wasn't port 80 that was in use it was 443! I thought I'd changed that too but I've been trying to get this running on and off for so long I'd lost track - when I first started trying, it was port 80 that was the problem
posted by missmagenta at 7:19 AM on July 1, 2015

Response by poster: Its running now but PHP isn't :( It used to all just work
posted by missmagenta at 7:46 AM on July 1, 2015

It's this a new install of XAMPP or did you move it from another machine or location?

I had a similar problem a while back and I just needed to run the config script again so it "knew" where its bits and pieces were. Like I said, it was a while ago and I'm on a bus at the moment so I don't know the specific name of the script, but you can look up the directions for moving XAMPP to a different location and it will tell you.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 9:03 AM on July 1, 2015