PHP?APACHE Problem with SQL SERVER EXPRESS Connection

I Have a problem with a connection from PHP to SQL Server Express. Sometimes it functions and sometimes not.

I have php 5.2.5 with apache 2.2.3 on windows XP (Apache/2.2.3 (Win32) mod_ssl/2.2.3 OpenSSL/0.9.8d PHP/5.2.5). Windows XP has service pack 2

Windows XP runs on VMWARE FUSION.

I Try to connect to a SQLEXPRESS 2005 database server on localhost\SQLEXPRESS

If I try to connect the APACHESERVER crashes. In the Apache Error Log I see this error code:

"Parent: child process exited with status 3221225477 -- Restarting."

The version of NTWDBLIB.DLL is 2000.80.194.0


I made a testscript:

<?php
ini_set("display_errors","on");
echo 'Startscript' . '<br>';
$server = 'localhost\SQLEXPRESS';
//$server = 'dbserv';
$user = 'sa';
$pass = 'xxxxxxxx';
$db = 'HORA_DUNAMARE';
echo 'pre-connect' . '<br>';
ob_flush();
$mshandle = mssql_connect($server, $user, $pass) or die("Couldn't connect to SQL Server on ".$server." ".mssql_get_last_message());

echo 'post-connect' . '<br>';
ob_flush();

$selected = mssql_select_db($db, $mshandle) or die("Couldn't open database ".$db);
echo 'post-select' . '<br>';
ob_flush();

$query = mssql_query("SELECT TOP 10 * FROM AFDELING");
echo 'post-query' . '<br>';
ob_flush();

$data = mssql_fetch_array($query,MSSQL_ASSOC);

echo 'pre-print' . '<br>';
echo '<pre>';
print_r($data);
echo '</pre>';
echo 'post-print' . '<br>';
?>


Sometimes it runs OK and sometimes it doesn't. If Apache has crashed and I restart Apache and try to run this testscript it fails. But if I, after a restart of Apache, run the script first with a false password and after that with the right password it runs again.

Can someone shed some light on this strange behavior