by Colin Fraser.
What is generating the exception? Is it Moodle or is it PHP or the server? If the version you are installing is no working, try stepping back one release and upgrading to that. Go to the php.ini file and set the error messages to all. See what response you get. If you cant access either that or the server, talk to your host.
As a general rule, if there are any issues within a PHP app, they are most likely to be found in the latest rlease. So for self protection, it is better to go to the second latest release for your production site - and try the latest release on your test server.