You need to have one, and only one of the directives active for the script to work.

Although it sounds like you have the .htaccess file from the newer version which attempts to provide custom 404 and 500 error pages, which again, don't always work due to various server configurations.

yep, running the latest - started with fantastico. when that blew up, i nuked it and did the scratch install. the error changed from the /directory 404 error to the 500 error. that's it.

i just re-enabled the sethandler application directive, leaving the force directive commented out

like:

<Files directory>
# ForceType x-httpd-php
# ForceType application/x-httpd-php
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
# SetHandler application/x-httpd-php5
</Files>

no effect.