500 – Internal server error when installing or changing themes

Is there a web.config file in the root with syntax that might the causing the issue?

Do you see a more detailed error if you run from IIS directly?

I usually have something like this in the WP installs I have running on server 2008.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
<rewrite>
    <rules>
        <rule name="Main Rule" stopProcessing="true">
            <match url=".*" />
            <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
            </conditions>
            <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
        </rule>
    </rules>
</rewrite>
 </system.webServer>
</configuration>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
		<rewrite>
			<rules>
				<rule name="Main Rule" stopProcessing="true">
					<match url=".*" />
					<conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
						<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
						<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
					</conditions>
					<action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
				</rule>
			</rules>
		</rewrite>
        <handlers>
            <add name="php 5" path="*.php" verb="*" modules="FastCgiModule" scriptProcessor="C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\php-cgi.exe" resourceType="Unspecified" />
        </handlers>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Thats the web.config file as it stand now. I inputted your code in hopes of fixing the issue but it didn’t help.

I ran it from IIS and I got a 500.0 error with these details:

Module FastCgiModule
Notification ExecuteRequestHandler
Handler php 5
Error Code 0x00000000
Requested URL https://www.wonderbeanstudios.com:80/index.php
Physical Path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wonderbeanstudios_com\index.php
Logon Method Anonymous
Logon User Anonymous

I wouldn’t be surprised if the permissions for web.config are wrong but from what I can tell, it looks right! =/

Can you make a detailed trace of errors in IIS?

On the website, choose Failed Request and Tracing Rules.
Click Add, then follow the assistant.

Okay this is getting weird. I activated the tracing and even though I’m still getting 500.0 errors, the tracing isn’t adding anything to the log folder but in IIS it IS showing it has enabled. This is borderline weird.

Maybe there are other underlying issues with IIS itself. Guess you could try running filemon to see if that provides more clues.

Is this your only WP site in IIS or are you running another instance?

For the sake of a test, I think I would install a another instance of WP and test the process…who knows, may be a combination if things.

What does the server event log show…any weird errors that could give us a clue as to where to start looking?

This is my only WP site but not the only CMS, I have two instances of CMS sites running on mySQL and a bunch of .NET sites running on MSSQL.

This was my first attempt to use WP as I wanted to test it out for this new site I’m working on so I’m a little in the dark about how WP works but assuming it’s similar to the other php CMS, the settings look identical to the other sites.

In the event viewer all I’m seeing are timeouts of the Application pool to my WP site and each log entry corresponds to 500.0 errors that I initiate. Only problem is I’m not really sure what that tells me except that something isn’t working right.

However I activated WP DEBUG and I got this message:

Notice: Undefined index: activated in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wonderbeanstudios_com\wp-content\themes\tipztheme\functions.php on line 109

Notice: Undefined index: preview in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wonderbeanstudios_com\wp-content\themes\tipztheme\functions.php on line 109

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wonderbeanstudios_com\wp-content\themes\tipztheme\header.php on line 56

So would that lead me to believe that the theme is bad and I should toss it and try another?

Just tested it, it was the theme I was using. Installed a new theme and worked just fine! *whew* I’m glad it wasn’t an IIS issue. =)

No way…a bad theme! and here I thought all themes were created equal ;)-

Not sure why I thought you were having this issue with all themes you tested…Oh well, at least you found the issue.

well I guess I just had bad luck because all 4 themes I had were bad =/

Now I just have to figure out how to make my own!