WP 3.3.2 Problems With PHP 5.3.10

My website crashed yesterday and it seems there might have been a problem with WordPress and the latest version of PHP (version 5.3.10). It could totally be that I have had this website for awhile and the older version affected it but I thought I would let WordPress know and see if I can get some guidance/suggestions. Below is the convo I had with my hosting company (Matt is the hosting companies WordPress expert).

Matt: The problem is that we upgraded php and the website is using something that requires the older version of php

Ben: I’m using WordPress for that site, could it be a WordPress thing?

Matt: Yes, I’m attempting to make it use the newer version

Ben: I am using WordPress for other websites too, would I see a similar problem with the other sites as well?

Matt: You might

Ben: ok, What version of PHP is the newest version?

Matt: 5.3.10 / This webpage appears to be set up to use 5.2.17

Ben: This is good info to know, thanks

Matt: The problem that it is having is that it’s attempting to use zend optimizer which isn’t installed on the server. We might be able to get an admin to install it tomorrow. . .doing a little research to make sure that this is possible

Ben: ok, I’m also attempting to contact the people from WordPress – to see if they can advise me

Matt: I’ve looked at another server that never had older versions of php installed on it and it doesn’t look like Zend Optimizer (which is where the problem is coming from) even installed on it. The problem is an incompatibility issue between your setup and the version of php, and it does not appear that what it’s looking for is supported with the latest version of php

Ben: I’m a little confused, is it because my account is older?

Matt: It’s because wordpress is set up for an older version of php, yes. It’s looking for a piece of code that no longer exists

Ben: What if I were to install a brand new WordPress site today. Would I still get errors?

Matt: No, because the new site would automatically use what replaced it. I’ll see if I can get this site to reference the newer code

Ben: Oh, ok I think I’m getting it now. It is because my site is old and the upgrades of WordPress still have some old coding in it. Ok, another question. If I backed up my site and then deleted the fashionportland.com WordPress site and then did a fresh install then things should work perfectly, right?

Matt: It might. There might be a plugin that requires the old php. What version of wordpress is this using?

Ben: 3.3.2 the latest version

Matt: interesting

Ben: it was released a few weeks ago – i think. It could be a plug-in but I haven’t added any recently. When did you update PHP?

Matt: A month or two ago. I don’t remember exactly

Ben: Hmm…that is very interesting

Matt: When removing any reference from your php.ini file to the previous code, it doesn’t throw any errors that I can see. . .other than the webpage not working properly

Ben: What if I deleted all the plugins and the problem was with one of the plugins, should things start to work again?

Matt: I tried to disable the plugin’s and it didn’t appear to resolve anything

Ben: Darn it

Matt: I attempted with the themes as well

My site is still down. Both WestHost and I are looking into why the error is still occuring.