Wow! It looks like this post is two years old. I'm (in 2009) having the same problem. C'mon guys. Where all my apache runnin' niggazz at? Somebody gotz to know! Kirsty! If you're still out there in PHP land and you've got the answer to this question pleeeeeze post it. That is if you ever solved it (with servers you never can be sure). Heeeeeeeelp!

Ok my niggaz. I found the answer. Uninstall skype. I found that answer on another board. I tried it. It was that easy.:)

If XAMPP Apache won't start...
and your not running IIS...
and you're not running Skype...

Continue reading. Solution below (Windows)

First, open C:\xampp\apache\logs\error.log and see what the error is.

If the error says that a port is already in use, the instructions below will explain how you can determine which application is using that port (Windows).

My error log entry said that Port 443 was already being used (and I wasn't running IIS or Skype)

(OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. : make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:443
no listening sockets available, shutting down

To determine which application is using Port 443 (or port 80), do the following (Windows)

1. Open a DOS window - Start | Run | "CMD"
2. Type the following: netstat -aon
3. Find the local address using :443 (example: 127.0.0.0:443)
4. Now find the PID associated with that active connection (last column) - This is the application that's using that port.

To figure out what application is associated with that PID, do the following:
5. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and select the Processes tab.

By default, you will only see the following columns in the Process Tab:
- Image Name
- UserName
- CPU
- Mem Usage

6. From the dropdown menu, Click "View" and then "Select Columns..."
7. Place a check next to PID (Process Identifier) - you will now be able to see the PID for each application running
8. Find which process is associated with the PID

You have now identified which application is screwing up your Apache Service.

btw, my problem was PMB.EXE, which is Pando Media Booster. Pando Media Booster is the Peer-to-Peer downloader client for Dungeons and Dragons Online. As soon as I uninstalled it, Apache started no problem.

Just thought I'd share. I hope that helped. :)

Hi guys,

I ran into the same problem as you all. In case anyone else stumbles across this forum, here's how to fix it.

Kaemon's entry was also very helpful, wish I'd read that earlier! But anywho, if xampp has been working in the past or even if you've just installed it, the majority of the time apache has problems starting up is because it is trying to use ports that are already being used by other programs. Especially Ports 80 and 443. Rather than going to lengths trying to figure out what is using the ports you need and disabling them you can just simply specify new ports for xampp to use.

Change the following lines in your xampp configuration by opening them up in a text editor like notepad or whatever you use

C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf:

• Scroll down and find “Listen 80″, change to “Listen 8080″
• Also find “ServerName localhost:80″, change to “ServerName localhost:8080"

C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-ssl.conf

• Scroll down and find “Listen 443″, change to “Listen 4499″
• Also find “<VirtualHost _default_:443>”, change to “<VirtualHost _default_:4499>”
• and just below that find “ServerName localhost:443″, change this to “ServerName localhost:4499″

Now try re starting xampp and seeing if apache starts correctly. If it does you just have to remember to specify the port when you're using your browser. So now rather than just going to:
http://localhost/xampp/
You should now use: localhost:8080 (or whatever port you specified in httpd.conf above)
http://localhost:8080/xampp/

*Also note, you don't specifically have to use ports 8080 or 4499. If you're still having problems and try repeating the steps and specifying a different port instead.

Kind Regards,

Lucas ;)

Great thanks a lot!!