jrsicher on "Internal server error 500"

Hi,

I'm really new to Wordpress and also to programming (just started studying computer science in Switzerland) so don't be astonished by my comment below ;):

I wanted to upload a simple demo content from a theme which I recently bought. I spent days on working it out but always got stuck. A 500 Internal Server error occured. I spent hours on fixing it via dreamhost support but just got stuck again and again. The things I tried:

1) My Host said I should try it with the following: create a folder .php/5.3 with a custom phprc file with:

upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 500
max_input_time = 500

I wasn't really sure about the directory. Which is the correct directory for this folder .php) Is it only /admin or /admin/wp-admin, /admin/wp-content or /admin/wp-includes

I also tried to add the text above into a php.ini file.. Did I do that right or wrong?

2) rename .htaccess file to .htaccess_old (permalinks > save in order to generate a new .htaccess file)

3) customize the wp-config.php file with the text right under:

<?php
/** WP_MEMORY_LIMIT 64M */
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

But the upload limit is still on 7mb by the Wordpress Importer..

4) and finally splitting it to 10 different .xml file or putting the original .xml file into a .gz file in order to get it uploaded but it still didn't work..

What should I do?
Hopefully someone can help me!

Cheers from the swiss alps!