My system:
-windows 7 - php 5.5.9 - stack: xampp(32bit) xdebug version: PHP 5.5 VC9 (32 bit) from http://xdebug.org/download.php
and my php.ini:
[XDebug] zend_extension="php_xdebug-2.3.1-5.5-vc9-nts.dll" xdebug.remote_handler = dbgp xdebug.remote_enable=1 xdebug.remote_port=9000 xdebug.remote_host = 127.0.0.1 xdebug.profiler_enable=1 xdebug.profiler_output_dir="C:\xampp\tmp" my php installation is in: C:\xampp\php\ext
I have a very similar setup and here is what works for me:
[XDebug] zend_extension = "C:\xampp\php\ext\php_xdebug.dll" xdebug.profiler_append = 0 xdebug.profiler_enable = 0 xdebug.profiler_enable_trigger = 1 xdebug.profiler_output_dir = "C:\xampp\tmp" xdebug.profiler_output_name = "cachegrind.out.%t-%s" xdebug.remote_enable = 1 xdebug.remote_handler = "dbgp" xdebug.remote_host = "127.0.0.1" xdebug.remote_port = 9000 xdebug.remote_mode = "req" xdebug.trace_output_dir = "C:\xampp\tmp" xdebug.remote_log = "C:\xampp\php\logs\xdebug_log" xdebug.max_nesting_level = 1000 
i also had to struggle for 2 days after that got it working.... my config is -
[xdebug] zend_extension = C:\Program Files\PHP54\ext\php_xdebug-2.3.1-5.4-vc9.dll xdebug.idekey = netbeans-xdebug xdebug.remote_enable=on xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp xdebug.remote_host=localhost xdebug.remote_port=9000 