where did you place this php.ini in the root of the site? if thats not working i would put a copy in every directory maybe one at a time, starting with the ray directory, and moving through them to see if that helps the situation. do you not have access to the php.ini file on the server rather than loading one on root? some servers just dont like to parse an ini file via of that method. can you try to put this same call in your htaccess rather than creating the php.ini? what is your server setup see more on php on cgi? or just standard php? i understand that some installs with suphp and such can create a headache at times.

good luck,
DosDawg