better way is:

$sth = $dbh->prepare($query) or die "DB Error: ".$dbh->errstr."\n";
[download]

at every database execution. After that you should examine the error code in error.log, or where errors are written.

It can be so much thing, that we have to have a look at that first. (e.g. different database table format, etc)

Tip: besides your method fill up date and time fields with mysql now() function - if it is mysql - or with CURRENT_TIMESTAMP variable. They also work with Postgres.

cheers

-- tune