Title: HTTP 500 on setup-config.php?step=2
Last modified: August 24, 2016

---

# HTTP 500 on setup-config.php?step=2

 *  [pcgeek86](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pcgeek86/)
 * (@pcgeek86)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/)
 * I’m performing a new installation of WordPress 4.1.1 on the webhost Arvixe, under
   a Windows Server 2012 R2 / IIS 8.5 environment. I uploaded the WordPress files
   via FTP / FileZilla.
 * I’m getting a HTTP 500 message when I attempt to go to the second page of the
   installation wizard, after plugging in the WordPress database details. Any ideas
   on what would cause this?
 * **PHP**: 5.3
 * Cheers,
    Trevor Sullivan Microsoft MVP: PowerShell

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [duncanrussell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/duncanrussell/)
 * (@duncanrussell)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985901)
 * Trevor,
 * Add the following lines to the top of setup-config.php, after the opening <?php
   tag:
 * error_reporting(E_ALL);
    ini_set(‘display_errors’, 1); define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
 * This should give you a more specific error message.
 * Duncan Russell
    _[link removed – please see the forum guidelines about links 
   in signatures]_
 *  Thread Starter [pcgeek86](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pcgeek86/)
 * (@pcgeek86)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985904)
 * Duncan,
 * Thanks for registering and responding! That didn’t really seem to have an effect
   on the resulting error in Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8.1. I even disabled“
   friendly HTTP error messages” in IE.
 * Any thoughts?
 * Cheers,
    Trevor Sullivan Microsoft MVP: PowerShell
 *  [duncanrussell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/duncanrussell/)
 * (@duncanrussell)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985917)
 * Oh, hold on. setup-config.php defines errors already. Open in Wordpad, and search/
   replace:
    error_reporting(0); –> error_reporting(-1);
 *  [duncanrussell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/duncanrussell/)
 * (@duncanrussell)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985919)
 * Or error_reporting(E_ALL);
 *  [Jason](https://wordpress.org/support/users/2bc_jason/)
 * (@2bc_jason)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985927)
 * Debugging messages may not be present if one of the files is corrupted, or has
   odd line endings.
 * You could try re-uploading the WordPress files, particularly the _wp-admin_ folder,
   _wp-includes_ folder, and the files in the base directory. If there was an issue
   with uploading one of the files, this may fix it. _install.php_ is in the wp-
   admin folder, BTW.
 *  Thread Starter [pcgeek86](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pcgeek86/)
 * (@pcgeek86)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985953)
 * I just deleted the entire contents of the wwwroot directory and re-uploaded WordPress
   4.1.1. I’m still getting the exact same behavior as soon as I get to “step 2.”
 * Next, I’m going to try deleting the website and re-creating it on the web host’s
   Control Panel.
 * Cheers,
    Trevor Sullivan Microsoft MVP: PowerShell
 *  Thread Starter [pcgeek86](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pcgeek86/)
 * (@pcgeek86)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985977)
 * Okay, so the issue turned out to be:
 * 1. My web host (Arvixe) uses WebsitePanel as their Control Panel tool
    2. WebsitePanel
   apparently limits password length for MySQL database user accounts. I was using
   a 128-bit password, and had to resort to a 38-bit password instead. 3. WordPress
   fails to do appropriate error checking / handling for invalid database logins.
   4. Hours of my time are wasted.
 * Cheers,
    Trevor Sullivan Microsoft MVP: PowerShell

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘HTTP 500 on setup-config.php?step=2’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Installing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/installation/)
 * 7 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [pcgeek86](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pcgeek86/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-500-on-setup-configphpstep2/#post-5985977)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics