I might not have anything to add from the MySQL side, but I've noticed with a MSSQL NT Webserver of mine, that it used to appear to not respond after a GPF.
I use GPFReporter to restart the service, but it appeared to restart almost too quickly, and couldn't properly bind to the port that I wanted, because it was still in use.
I spoke to Bruce to see if there was a way to test if the init had worked correctly, but he couldn't think of a way of doing it, so I placed a 10 second pause before the init of the webserver, and I haven't had a hang since.
Regards,
Neil.