internal server error ~ help

[shabbie]

hi all,
i keep getting this error when a large order is placed. after trying to place a trial order myself (following customer complaints) i find i can't even clear my own shopping cart!
my hosts are FASTHOSTS, is this their error or an actinic problem.

INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
the server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
please contact the server administrator, webmaster and inform them of the time the error occured and what might have caused the error.
more information may be available on the server log.

[wjcampbe]

What time did the error occur? Is there anything in the error.err file on your site that helps diagnose the problem?

[shabbie]

hi bill, unfortunately i'm not that experienced so it just looks like a load of gobbledy-gook. i cant see times in there at all.

[NormanRouxel]

This can happen on large orders if the server hasn't been allocated enough memory for Perl scripts to run in.

The amount of memory these scripts need is somewhat proportional to the size of the Cart. Also the execution time of these scripts will,be longer for big carts, again leading to the possibility of a time limit for Perl scripts being reached.

Ask your server people if there's an error log that you can see as this will help pinpoint it.

The error.err file is maintained by Actinic and only logs errors that Actinic can recover from. A fatal error (like yours) will probably not be logged into error.err (the Actinic scripts just died after all), so you'll have to go for the server logs.

[shabbie]

thanks for your replies, i've informed fasthosts of the problem, they reckon they did checks and cant find a problem. i had the same problem again this morning after receiving thier reply so i sent them another message saying that i want them to have a thorough look at the problem.
we shall wait and see.
sharon