Internal 500 error

well that error could mean anything..
if your blog is new, try replacing .htaccess file with a fresh one (probably from WP3.5 pack)..

Can you check your error logs and php logs… there is usually a clue in there.
Turn wp-debug to true – to print (=to see) the error code on browser.

As your webhost where is the php log file’s error log. We need that file.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Debugging_in_WordPress

Quick fix :

1. Access FTP.
2. Go to wp-content/plugins
3. Rename that folder to .plugins (temporarily). (dot makes all plugin folder content not accessible). A bit modified from the WP codex doc.
4. Rename .htaccess to bak.htacccess for now.
4. Load in browser your site.

I did the .plugins and bak.htaccess (I assumed you didn’t mean bak.htacccess) and I get the same error notice.

Here’s what it’s got for today in the php error log:

[07-Jan-2013 05:50:41] WordPress database error You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ‘(8) )’ at line 12 for query CREATE TABLE wp_simple_feed_stats ( id mediumint(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, logtime varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, request varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, referer varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, type varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, qstring varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, address varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, tracking varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, agent varchar(200) NOT NULL default ”, PRIMARY KEY (id), cur_timestamp TIMESTAMP(8) ) made by include(‘wp-config.php’), require_once(‘wp-settings.php’), do_action(‘init’), call_user_func_array, sfs_create_table, dbDelta

That seems to repeat a lot, unless they’re slightly different and I can’t tell because I don’t speak this language.
I took C++ in high school–fat lot of good that’s doing me. Thank you so much for your help!!

Apache is running – https://www.piercedhands.com/readme.html

(Ignore the previous reply via email, possibly the webserver has other issues with running Apache, I got 500 with that url before.)

What you will do is –

Download a custom script (scroll down to the lower part to “Downloads”) https://thecustomizewindows.com/2012/09/rackspace-cloud-sites-php-ini-details-apache-2-modules-information/ ; upload it to root and run to check the PHP modules. Delete it after test because it is a security risk.

As you basically have an overall idea, you will understand whether php is running or not or basic needs for WP are running or not.

If everything is fine, then the definite problem is with WordPress corrupted files. If you have the MySQL backup (or take it via PHPMyAdmin) check it on subdomain or other test installation. Basically as you can understand, whether the MySQL is fine or not that is important.

If its ok, then freshly install WordPress and restore the mysql backup. Except the wp-content/uploads folder, you need nothing to backup from FTP.

Hey, I’m OP’s friend and I’ve been taking a look at the server via FTP to see what’s going on.
What seems to be happening is that something is corrupting the .htaccess file, duplicating entire chunks of the file and placing the extra code at the beginning of the file. I go in and remove the extra code and the site will work for about a day until I encounter the same problem again, with a different chunk. It looks like some module or extension is incorrectly rewriting .htaccess. Is there anything known to cause an error like that?

I imagine we’ll probably have to reinstall WordPress on the server, but I’m not quite sure how to do that. I’m familiar with PHP and with web development in general, but I’m new to WordPress specifically. How would we go about the reinstall while maintaining the content, themes, layout, etc.?

Who is looking you are the friend of the original one !
(I appreciate your honesty).

If .htaccess goes wrong there will 500 IS error. Probably its the most common cause. Yes, it appears the Apache mod (s) is/are not rightly installed on serverside. (I guess you have ran the script…)

Look, if modules are not rightly installed, how you can install and run WordPress properly. It was basically running fine. You can create a folder in FTP (something with name test or like that) and install fresh WordPress to test first. If works great, proceed and cleanup. If does not work, leave the web hosting company, if they do not do any fix.

You will get the basic and advanced guides on Codex : https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Main_Page

Look at this post for my previous reply for clean installing wordpress and restoring the backup – https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/migration-to-plesk-gone-wrong?replies=2#post-3506688