I would agree with you , but the same code , with the same databse ran fine with PHP 5.1.6 the problem started after upgating to 5.3 , what I like beter by the way.
How I can check direver version ?
I ran phpinfo and it shows me Client API version 5.1.38 which suppose to be compatible with long varchat fields.
PS. I chage code to use mysql functions isted of mysqli and it works.