New Install: 'Cannot log in to the MySQL server'

[kmarizo]

Hello. Hoping I am posting this in the correct area within the forum. I have a Windows 64 bit o/s. I want to set up a local PHP development environment for website authoring (Dreamweaver/Wodpress). It was recommended to try XAMPP. I checked the website, I didn't see a download specific to Win 7 64 bit ( (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html) so I downloaded XAMPP for Windows to my laptop. I installed XAMPP using the installer and installed it at C:\xampp. I believe I chose to enable Apache and MySQL as 'Windows services' . The installation seemed to go okay, sort of. I remember seeing an error indicating something such as 'Error: status check failure 3, must install at root, busy' (I thought I did..... it installed at C:\xampp). The XAMPP Controller Panel application then popped up, I can see Apache & MqSQL in green status/running. I then logged into http://localhost/ and received the welcome screen. I clicked on the security section and set a Root password. I also allowed 'phpMyAdmin connects to MySQL as the root superuser' via a cookie. (was that the best option?). I then chose to test the PHP installation via the tools phpinfo menu, I then received 'Cannot log in to the MySQL server' via the phpMyAdmin. I am sure I am entering the correct username/password. I don't know what I did wrong.

Not sure if this helps but in the XAMPP Controller Panel , I can not stop either the Apache or MqSQL service. I also checked the root directory and found:

Apache error log:

[Wed Apr 27 12:11:03 2011] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:03 2011] [notice] Digest: done
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:05 2011] [notice] Apache/2.2.17 (Win32) mod_ssl/2.2.17 OpenSSL/0.9.8o PHP/5.3.4 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:05 2011] [notice] Server built: Oct 18 2010 01:58:12
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:05 2011] [notice] Parent: Created child process 2740
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:06 2011] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:06 2011] [notice] Digest: done
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:07 2011] [notice] Child 2740: Child process is running
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:07 2011] [notice] Child 2740: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:07 2011] [notice] Child 2740: Starting 150 worker threads.
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:07 2011] [notice] Child 2740: Starting thread to listen on port 443.
[Wed Apr 27 12:11:07 2011] [notice] Child 2740: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Apr 27 12:15:47 2011] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Warning: file_get_contents(lang.tmp) [<a href='function.file-get-contents'>function.file-get-contents</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\\xampp\\htdocs\\xampp\\index.php on line 2
--------------------------------

mysql_error.log

110427 12:11:10 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled
InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use Windows interlocked functions
InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3
110427 12:11:10 InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 16.0M
110427 12:11:10 InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
InnoDB: The first specified data file C:\xampp\mysql\data\ibdata1 did not exist:
InnoDB: a new database to be created!
110427 12:11:10 InnoDB: Setting file C:\xampp\mysql\data\ibdata1 size to 10 MB
InnoDB: Database physically writes the file full: wait...
110427 12:11:11 InnoDB: Log file C:\xampp\mysql\data\ib_logfile0 did not exist: new to be created
InnoDB: Setting log file C:\xampp\mysql\data\ib_logfile0 size to 5 MB
InnoDB: Database physically writes the file full: wait...
110427 12:11:11 InnoDB: Log file C:\xampp\mysql\data\ib_logfile1 did not exist: new to be created
InnoDB: Setting log file C:\xampp\mysql\data\ib_logfile1 size to 5 MB
InnoDB: Database physically writes the file full: wait...
InnoDB: Doublewrite buffer not found: creating new
InnoDB: Doublewrite buffer created
InnoDB: 127 rollback segment(s) active.
InnoDB: Creating foreign key constraint system tables
InnoDB: Foreign key constraint system tables created
110427 12:11:12 InnoDB: 1.1.4 started; log sequence number 0
110427 12:11:12 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events
110427 12:11:12 [Note] c:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe: ready for connections.
Version: '5.5.8' socket: '' port: 3306 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

/ Your assistance is greatly appreciated. thanks