fgetcsv dies on live instance on dev not -- where to look

Question

I have identical live and dev instances on the same server
(seperated by fastcgi with an identical php.ini)

i run in a script the command
while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 10000, ";")) !== FALSE) {

on the dev instance the command runs without problems
44000 lines, uses up to 200MB of memory (of 512MB given)

on the live instance it runs up to line 28700
and crashes the script without output
with 133MB of memory used

i put the command in a "try" but no error is thrown

where could i look next

UPDATE
it crashes without output (blank page)
i execute it from a http page
the script just stops when returning to the while statement (narrowed down by writing to a file the state)
it's a dedicated server

UPDATE2 forgot the php error log :/
-- according to it, it seems like i exhausted the memory though it's weird ..

Answer 1

You could check your PHP error logs. Depending on your configuration your PHP errors may show in your web server logs or in a dedicated PHP log file.

See http://www.php.net/manual/en/errorfunc.configuration.php#ini.error-log