admin giving blank page

I have just installed 1.5.4 on https://www.marybeth-jewelry.com (Brand new installation)

Appears to look OK with test products but I cannot get into admin - just receiving blank page even if I use
https://www.marybeth-jewelry.com/newadminfoldername/index.php. Have checked the index.php is there in the renamed admin directory.

Have done all the normal things for an installation and after installing deleted the install directory, renamed the admin directory and changed the permissions for the 2 configure.php files and same for those other folders mentioned in the 1.5.4 documentation which were changed before I ran zc_install.

What could be wrong ?

This is what is in log file. Have replaced the renamed admin directrory with the word renamed below.

[19-Feb-2015 11:22:48] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STATIC in /home1/irishisb/public_html/marybethjewelry/renamed/includes/classes/class.admin.zcObserverLogEventListener.php on line 118

Have you had a read through the Known Bug Fixes for v1.5.4:
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?215694-Known-Bugs-%28and-fixes%29-with-v1-5-4

Took on board NOTE 7 in Dr. Bytes post but still getting

ATTENTION: Problems Found
Admin Password required to proceed with upgrade more info...

I know the password and username are correct.

How do I restart this process ?

I was thinking post #2 might be what you need ...

What version php are you using?

irishshopper:

Took on board NOTE 7 in Dr. Bytes post but still getting

ATTENTION: Problems Found
Admin Password required to proceed with upgrade more info...

I know the password and username are correct.

How do I restart this process ?
Since you're using the old PHP version, you'll need to apply the relevant patches for that old PHP version.

THEN you'll be able to import the copy of your old database and do the upgrade. (Do NOT try logging into your admin after importing and before upgrading, else you'll mangle the passwords in the database, since it'll try to update the password but won't be able to store the new longer data because the upgrade has to change the length of the data fields first. That's why the instructions don't say there's any need to login to admin after importing data.)

Bluehost tell me it is using PHP 1.5.4

irishshopper:

Bluehost tell me it is using PHP 1.5.4

There is no PHP 1.5.4 at this time (if PHP Version 1.5.4 ever existed it has been long deprecated). Please verify the information and repost.

Further it could be that a newer version of PHP is offered/available; however, there may be commands in place to have an older version of PHP applied to the site. I thought I also saw a post a couple weeks back where a completely different solution was required because of the host's configuration, but I do not recall if it applied to the T_STATIC error or a completely different issue and at the moment am unable to relocate it based on my memory alone.

https://www.marybeth-jewelry.com is using PHP 5.4.

So have you applied the suggested fix, and what error logs if any are generated after applying the suggested fix of post #2 of the above referenced link when attempting to access the admin panel?

If you're getting T_STATIC errors, then while your server MIGHT be capable of running PHP 5.4, it is not. It is still using PHP 5.2 ... which with BlueHost means you need to go into cPanel, find the PHP configuration, and choose the latest PHP version. That's explained in fine print in the Bug Reports article that was mentioned above.

/admin/includes/configure.php does not exist more info...
store configure.php is not writeable more info...

Since Bluehost moved to PHP 5.4 one of my other ZenCarts using V1.3.9 is now showing a blank page when I try to log on to the admin area.

Zen Cart v1.3.9 series is compatible with PHP 5.2.10 thru PHP 5.3.x.

you need to upgrade that site