Recently, I encountered that problem. I was working with a PHP engine wich was using php short_open_tags:

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<?
// open PHP tag using <?  instead of <?php
?>

So very simple, I wanted to change the property by the simple way, tray icon -> PHP -> PHP Settings -> short open tag.

Ok the option is ticked, but the engine still doesn’t start. The issue. Looks like my version of PHP: 5.2.6, applies this setting only if set last on config file. So after many minutes of mistery, just adding line:

short_open_tags = On

at the end of my php.ini file, solved the proble.