my two cents is... I see that if you are using the exellent xampp from apachefriends.org.
I found this thread because I could not get apache to start when using xampp and the suggestion to uncheck "the use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections" tickbox in skype solved my apache connection problem instantly, once I had stopped them from running as services in the xamp control panel.
BTW I am running vista home premium.