In the last post I mentioned phpdev as an Apache MySQL PHP package.

Here is some info on what it is and where to get it.

NOTE THIS NOTE from Simon Wheeler
(Also on the download page.)

"Important!, please read the basic instructions that are presented on the download page, 30 seconds of reading can save you hours of abusing your computer." ;-)

Here is one thing I noticed when I couldn't connect to MySQL. I navigated within the c:\phpdev directory to here:
\mysql\bin\ Here you will find several mysqld exe files.

Double-click on the file that relates to your operating system and rerun the connection check to phpMyAdmin from the /phpdev/www/start_here.htm page. Access this page from http://localhost/start_here.htm and that will hopefully fix it.