lol..you have patience for the noobs (boy, I'm slow lol) getting good at uninstalling, have done it like 40 times, but what I didn't do afterwards was RESTART, but have restarted just now, cause it says to for the php tut (the test page works when I turned Apache back on, through 'Programs..Apache' but the icon isn't in the systems tray at bottom of puter..oh well thanx again

update: Yay!! guess 1 third there now- have php tut done, am seeing the page I should at http://localhost(php info page)...SO exiting!! thanx Troy

*edit...http://localhost

k Troy, was hoping my next post would say I'm finished, and don't need to trifle you again but....using the MySql installer, clicking all the defaults, I get as far as "Install as Windows Service, ticked, and "MySql" in the box, and "Launch the MySql Service automatically" and get pop-up "a windows service with the name MySql already exists (swear I don't have any other versions in here) "Do you want to use this servicename".. 'yes'
enter password...press execute, first two boxes tick, but no 'start service', Cannot create Windows service for MySQL. error 0...so I gess I can't play

Your double Apache problem, and now MySQL install warning that service with name 'MySQL' already exists....you've definitely had MySQL installed (or an attempt to install) previously. Whether you did it or some product you installed put it on there for you. Depending on how MySQL was installed, you'll have MySQL in your Add/Remove Programs Controlpanel. Again, try removing everything MySQL related, then try again with MySQL install according to my HOWTO.

Good job getting Apache and PHP playing together and tested. That has to have you feeling at least somewhat better, eh?

Oh, and not to worry about not having Apache in the systray. You can just go to Start/Programs/Apache/... The service control utility is in there. It may have an option to click to put it back in the systray...I don't know about that, and I'm not on an Win/Apache computer at the moment or I'd check for you.

Thax Troy (remembered to reboot puter this time after uninstalling everyting mysql related...hope that's what it was, crossing fingers lol) ummm- had to add this: in the box that said 'MySql' as default, I scrolled down and picked 4.1(cause that's the file I'm installing right?) and gess what? got no error message, and finished the installation ok..crossing fingers again(still don't know why it said I had another mysql, cant find it, and rebooted a few times)

Followed the rest of the instructions to a T (they were simple and clear enough, but every time I get this: Fatal error: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in C:\www\dbtest.php on line 8 when I go to http://localhost/dbtest.php to test it...now I think I will give up for a while

this is what's on line 8 of the code I pasted into that dbtest.php file created for c:/www/dbtest.php: if (!$cnn = mysql_connect($db_server, $db_user, $db_pwd)) {
echo mysql_error();.. am told there is an error on line 8, when I test the MySql

There is a section in the tutorial where it tells you to enable the mysql extension in the php.ini file. It definitely sounds like you did not do that. You need to uncomment this line in your php.ini file.

Well Troy, I did uncomment that line (ha ha, I'm picking up the lingo, and funny thing, stuff is starting to dawn on me how all this is done) with my very narrow grasp of this, all I can figure is maybe the version I downloaded has a 'corrupt' part in it, maybe the mysql line I uncommented itself, is calling some module somewhere that is giving me that error message, instead of what I should see...does that make sense to you somehow...or are you L.Y.A.O ahahhhaahhahaha (you don't know how much I appreciate your help up to now, and it's not wasted because I'm sure in a year from now I will look back on this and laugh and laugh.....)

OK, we are gonna get this figured out. You with me?! One step at a time now.

If you followed my instructions--and I'm sure you did :rolleyes: --, you'll have a directory named php on the root of your C:\drive. In this directory, you should have an ext directory.
Notice in your c:\php\ext directory that there are 38 (or so) DLL files. These are the PHP extension modules. One of these is php_mysql.dll. Also notice the php.ini line I had you uncomment was extension=php_mysql.dll.

Now, when Apache starts, it will process this php.ini file. It will also try to load any extensions you have enabled. The way Apache finds the extension files can be affected a number of ways, but the way I tell you to do it is this:
If you had failed to do this path thing, then when you start Apache, you'd get warning messages popup telling you there were files that could not be found. Apache would go ahead and start, but you'd not have the mysql extension loaded. Not having the mysql extension loaded would produce the exact PHP error you are seeing--that is, the mysql commands don't even exist.

So are you seeing any error messages when you start Apache? You can check your Apache error log. If you did the default Apache install for Windows, it will be located at C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\logs\error.log. You can open this file in Notepad or your favorite text editor (PSPad or UltraEdit for example). If Apache cannot find the mysql extension dll, you'll see a line like this in the error log:

Check through all this slowly--take you time to make sure you crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's.