phpmyadmin can't connect to mySQL, no root pw

[hearts2]

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm new so this is prob a basic question, but I've searched the forum for hours and can't find the answer.

When I try to get into PHPmyAdmin to create a database, I get the following error

Error

MySQL said: Documentation
#2013 - Lost connection to MySQL server at 'reading initial communication packet', system error: 0

I've never been able to get into PHPmyAdmin.

To try to fix the prob, I also set a root password. Then to get rid of the pw, I uninstalled XAMPP and then reinstalled. I still get the same above error.

What do I need to do... or read... to figure this out?

If I need to do something with code, or PHP, please give specific instructions. I don't know how to change the pw in the config file, which is why i reinstalled XAMPP.

Thanks.