One day after rebooting my Windows XP my XAAMP Apache 2.0 was unable to start. Here is what the error log showed”
[Sun Sep 20 15:01:00 2009] [crit] (OS 2)The system cannot find the file specified. : Parent: Unable to connect child stdout to NUL.
[Sun Sep 20 15:01:00 2009] [crit] (OS 2)The system cannot find the file specified. : master_main: create child process failed. Exiting.
[Sun Sep 20 15:01:00 2009] [error] (OS 6)The handle is invalid. : Parent: SetEvent for child process 0 failed
So while trying to find a solution for this problem, which in the beginning looked like a Apache related problem (I tried reinstalling XAAMP several times in different directories etc…) I found out that it actually was a Windows XP problem. Somehow the NULL driver on my PC has stopped working. So how to fix this problem:
- Open the Device Manager (right click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware)
- From the View menu select Show Hidden Devices
- From the Non-Plug and Play Drivers group find the Null driver right click it and Uninstall it
- Restart your PC and start Apache from the XAAMP control center
I hope this helps!