Thanks again for the reply!
XAMPP 1.7.4 - Windows XP (SP3) 32 bit - Wordpress 3.2.1
My installation is local on a machine only occasionally connected to the net for upgrades etc., as I am using it for learning and development.
I have spent all day trying to resolve my issue with the installation - trawling the Wordpress forums for possible solutions. I have tried completely removing all Wordpress files (and directories) from c:\xampp\htdocs then re-extracting them there from the zip file.
At the moment I have the files in a sub-directory (folder) called blog (renamed from the original 'wordpress' folder put into htdocs from the zip extraction.
I followed thw Wordpress instructions for modifying the wp-config.php file (using PSPad (one of the recommended text editors) - my last action there was to add the closing ?> tag but I discover that this is optional. Each time I run the http://localhost/blog/wp-admin/install.php script I get the following error (answers in brackets):
***
Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can't contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your host's database server is down.
Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
(A - yes for this installation I have followed Wordpress suggestion and named the database 'wordpress' and the username 'wordpress' too - I am certain I correctly recorded the password I chose but (see below) perhaps this is the nub of the issue.
Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
(A - yes hostname recorded as 'localhost' - I found somewhere in the Wordpress forums a reference to appending the port number for MySql if it was not set at 3307 (default) - I notice that it is running on port 3306 and I did follow this advice on an earlier attempt without success so the host is listed in wp-config as localhost without the port appended at the moment.
Are you sure that the database server is running?
(A - My XAMPP Control Panel Application tells me the status of Apache is Started/Running (on port 80) and MySql is Started/Running (on port 3306) - I assume this is sufficient confirmation that the server is running)
If you're unsure what these terms mean you should probably contact your host. If you still need help you can always visit the WordPress Support Forums.
***
After this I can only conclude that perhaps my MySql 'wordpress' database username password is incorrect - unless you can think of something else.
Therefore -
Can I either 1) Reset my password or 2) Remove the 'wordpress' database and start again?
If either (or both) of these is possible how do I do so.
Again thanks - I hate asking questions that I am sure have been asked (somewhere) before but after a day of no result I feel its better to ask again.
Regards
Paul