Thank you Moodle! It is working.
For everyone's benefit, here is what has been done to the server to solve the above problem according to the ISP:
> The problem was with fcgi limits on the server. I've now upped this on > your dedicated server in general as the default limits are insufficient as
> time goes on and applications like moodle and joomla start requiring more
> resources just to operate. > > The problem was with the fcgi and runphp defaults limits such as:
> FcgidMaxRequestLen
> MaxRequestsPerProcess
> ProcessLifeTime
> IPCCommTimeout
> nice=1 # be nice!
> AS=512000000 # 256Mb address space
> CPU=60 # 60 CPU seconds (it's a lot!)
> DATA=512000000 # 256Mb data segment
> FSIZE=750000000 # 750Mb files
> MEMLOCK=32768 # please don't lock memory
> NOFILE=2024 # 256 file descriptors
> STACK=8388608 # 8Mb of stack space
> NPROC=20 # 3 PHP, 17 imap and misc
> MSGQUEUE=102400 # lots of message queue space
>
> As said, we've set high enough limits that should prevent you ever
> experiencing an issue again.
I hope the above is true. Any comments regarding these settings from those in the know will be appreciated. Are these not items which can be checked by Moodle Installation when it checks the rest of the server setup (eg PHP)?