session_start() keeps the file load forever

Question

I'm using PHP with XAMPP. My PHP files work, but if I call session_start() in anywhere in the script and run it, writing "Waiting for localhost" at the page title, and page is loading forever, just shows a blank page and keeps loading.

I've also tried enabling the errors and no errors shown.

This runs:

<?php
echo "test";
?>

This doesn't run (blank page and the page is loading forever)

<?php
session_start();
echo "test";
?>

EDIT: Due to Fred's suggestion, I'm posting my session information from phpinfo() result:

Session Support  enabled  
Registered save handlers  files user  
Registered serializer handlers  php php_binary wddx  

session.auto_start Off Off 
session.cache_expire 180 180 
session.cache_limiter nocache nocache 
session.cookie_domain no value no value 
session.cookie_httponly Off Off 
session.cookie_lifetime 0 0 
session.cookie_path / / 
session.cookie_secure Off Off 
session.entropy_file no value no value 
session.entropy_length 0 0 
session.gc_divisor 1000 1000 
session.gc_maxlifetime 1440 1440 
session.gc_probability 1 1 
session.hash_bits_per_character 5 5 
session.hash_function 0 0 
session.name PHPSESSID PHPSESSID 
session.referer_check no value no value 
session.save_handler files files 
session.save_path C:\xampp2\tmp C:\xampp2\tmp 
session.serialize_handler php php 
session.upload_progress.cleanup On On 
session.upload_progress.enabled On On 
session.upload_progress.freq 1% 1% 
session.upload_progress.min_freq 1 1 
session.upload_progress.name PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS 
session.upload_progress.prefix upload_progress_ upload_progress_ 
session.use_cookies On On 
session.use_only_cookies Off Off 
session.use_trans_sid 0 0 

Answer 1

Having looked into this on my own environment it appears to be a glitch in the XAMPP software stack itself, I receive errors in my system error log indicating that the child process exited with a long status code followed by restarting. This is not a PHP related fault, rather it is a fault with the implementation in XAMPP. I have forwarded the details of the error to Bitnami which is a development member of the project and hopefully they will be able to resolve this and release an updated version, in the meantime I would recommend using wamp.