SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2014 Cannot execute queries while other unbuffered queries are active. ...
After spending hours trying to track down why we were getting this error on a new server, after the same code ran fine on other servers, we found the problem to be an old MySQL _client_ library running on our web server, and a latest-version MySQL _server_ running on the database server's box.
Upgraded the MySQL client on the web server to the current revision and the problem went away.