apache restart - 500 Internal Server Error

Can I ever get this message when trying to access a web site when apache is restarting ?

"Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

 

?

I'm not quite sure the question.
If Apache hasn't started up yet and you access a page, you usually get page not found error (offline)

 

This is exactly what I thought to. But I was complaining to hostgator support that there was a 500 Internal Server Error when I tried to visit the site. Hostgator support told me that it was because apache was restarting.

Could that happen at all ? or are they lying to me ?
There are no scripts on the site in question.

 

500 errors as well as 404, etc... are generated by apache, so if apache is not running, the box wouldn't know to throw up those errors.

Furthermore, anytime I've restarted apache, it takes literally a second or less to re-boot under normal conditions. If it takes longer, then it could be because there is an error in the apache configuration or the machine is under heavy load

 

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=362828

I have the 500 problem, but it doesn't fix it when I restart apache

 

Thats usually a config error.. i.e. include file error or http conf error. Could also be a php.ini error...It's hard to tell unless you have access to logfiles for the apache deamon