Can't get anything outside PHP

Hi Folks, Yes, that strange heading is exactly what it says.... I'm trying to get a procedure working that takes a feed from an XML page, and puts it into English... that should be common sense, but I can't seem to get anything from my server.... I've installed Apache on Win XP, with PHP, and tried installing PEAR, but that doesn't want to work, even using a file that I know works from another server; I've tried various ones from the web, but to no avail. Whenever I run scripts that try and get anything, either Pea or otherwise, it just comes up with a blank page, or anything that is not HTML. I know PHP is working because I've got other scripts running, and even added silly things like an echo(Date()); on every other line ... but still nothing from the XML side of things. Have I missed something silly (:probably:!!!!) Someone help! Please Nunners