"CLI has stopped working"

I'm trying to run a command-line php script, using php.exe version 5.2.6 (This is the version of PHP that is included with MS4W 2.3.1):

F:\ms4w\Apache\cgi-bin>php.exe -v
PHP 5.2.6 (cli) (built: May  2 2008 18:02:07)
Copyright (c) 1997-2008 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2008 Zend Technologies

Running under Windows Server 2007 SP2, I get an error: "CLI has stopped working."

Browsing around, I see reports of this problem as far back as 2007, but nobody seems to have a definitive answer as to why this is happening, or when it was fixed.  Various reports of "fixes" are reported, following by other folks saying it hadn't worked for them.

Does anyone have a clear explanation for what is going on?  Is it a configuration problem?  Or is it a bug that has been fixed?  Or a bug that hasn't yet been fixed?

I'm stumbling around in the dark, and my customer is getting demanding.