Free Webhosting can limit some php codons such as required things to run phpvms. Which i had free webhosting and it limited me and i looked at PHPVMS's Site Hosting Recomoncaiton which it is called Site5 and it is so awsome, they provide free, quick support by live chat and they are nice people to help you. Also maybe the old database is still there for your older phpvms which it could be the problem, maybe try to delete the DB or create a new one and you should have no problems.
That's why free hosting limits php codon to be required to run PHPVMS. Why do you check out the hosting i provided a like for you. Cheap like 4.95 a month!