MySQLi not available in PHP shows blank page

My host recently upgraded from a PHP install with mysqli enabled to PHP with no mysqli.

I installed my forum when it had mysqli but when my host upgraded it removed mysqli from PHP. This meant my forum only showed a blank white page, which meant I spent a few days trying to pinpoint the error as nothing was stored in the apache error logs, etc...

Maybe a good idea to say "MySQLi not available" error message instead of just a blank white screen" which gives error 500.