Apache starts and stops even with different Port number

[Rosscotini]

Good day
I have spent hours on this problem trying to fix it and read multiple different threads that just suggest to change the Apache port from 80 to a different port number which I did in the past from 80 to 4000.
Everything was working fine until it randomly decided to stop working.
I would run the Apache and it would start for a second and then stop.
I see many people having the same problem but none of their solutions seem to help me as I've already changed the Apache port number.
Xampp still reports that Apache is being started on port 80 even though I have changed it to 4000.
MySQL runs perfectly fine on port 3306.

The error log is as follows:
[Mon Nov 12 16:38:23 2012] [error] Unrecognized character \\xDA in column 3 at C:/xampp/perl/site/lib/APR/Const.pm line 1.\nCompilation failed in require at C:/xampp/apache/conf/extra/startup.pl line 10.\nBEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C:/xampp/apache/conf/extra/startup.pl line 10.\nCompilation failed in require at (eval 2) line 1.\n
[Mon Nov 12 16:38:23 2012] [error] Can't load Perl file: C:/xampp/apache/conf/extra/startup.pl for server localhost:4000, exiting...

Additional information: I don't have team viewer installed, Skype is installed but I end the process every time I run Apache(even though Skype probably runs on port 80)