500 internal server error of record updates

I am getting this error on a site when people try to edit and update their profile records.  The system basically hangs for a long time, then displays this error.  In general, the edits are saved however.   Is there a fix on this?  I see other posts reporting this, but most of them are pretty old.

 Rob,

I know this doesn't narrow it down much but the 500 error is normally caused by:

1. Incorrect file ownership, like if you uploaded the files while logged in as root

2. Something in an .htaccess that should be there, like incorrect syntax or a typo.

Those are the main two but it can be caused by a million other little things. Do you have access to the servers main error log (/usr/local/apache/logs/error_log)? The problem should be being logged there every time it happens.