Large Database Query Issues

[pseudocool]

I have a DB that is about 4.5gb with indexes etc...for some reason I can't drop the fulltext indexes i have to update them and my search feature is now crapped out and not working at all....This is the error i receive:

Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home1/oregoner/public_html/search.php on line 158
MySQL server has gone away

and line 158 obviously is:

Line 157:      $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM pe_records"); 
Line 158:      $num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result); 

Is the query just too large? Thanks in advance

[aj123cd]

Query results were very large, took too much time to fetch them, try increasing your timeout in php.ini
Increase the memory in php.ini
Create an index on anywhere/and/or values for the select statements in your database.
Use mysql_unbuffered_query()

[sneakyimp]

You might also use [man]mysql_ping[/man] on your database before trying to run a query on it. If the ping fails, you'll need to reconnect.