windows - apache won't start when configuring php

I am trying to configure php 5.3.6 with apache 2.2.17. apache runs fine, but will not start once i added entries to httpd.conf for php. the error log has stopped putting entries in when i try to start apache as well.

here are the entries i added, in the appropriate places in http.conf

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
LoadModule php5_module "C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP/php5apache2_2.dll"
PHPIniDir "C:/Program Files (x86)/PHP"

i have been researching this, but have not been able to find what i am doing wrong. i added double quotes to the paths as there are spaces in them, which resolved a loadmodule error in the log, only now i have no info to go as to what i am missing. any help would be appreciated. i would prefer not to use the all in one installers like wamp server, etc. thanks!

Answer

httpd.conf looks fine. I'm using:

PHPIniDir "C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP"

LoadModule php5_module "C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\php5apache2_2.dll"

The direction of the slashes doesn't seem to make any difference, but as robbrit's suggested, it's worth trying.

However, if you're running 5.3.6, are you using the VC9 binaries from php.net? If so, they explicitly state that they shouldn't be used with apache.org's Apache build. This may be the root of your problem. Your options are to use older VC6 binaries as I'm doing (PHP 5.2) or use a VC9 compiled version of Apache which is available from Apache Lounge.