I give up. Look at this crap. I've tried every method known to Google and STILL the ONLY apparent solution is to DOWNGRADE to 1.7.3..NUTS:
Yeah, believe me...have spent HOURS on this.........and know ALL about the old vs new password crap......NOTHING WORKS.............
Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Premature end of data (mysqlnd_wireprotocol.c:554) in X:\xampp\htdocs\PHP\8KConnxet883kkcm23.php on line 15
Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: OK packet 1 bytes shorter than expected in X:\xampp\htdocs\PHP\8KConnxet883kkcm23.php on line 15
Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: mysqlnd cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using the old insecure authentication. Please use an administration tool to reset your password with the command SET PASSWORD = PASSWORD('your_existing_password'). This will store a new, and more secure, hash value in mysql.user. If this user is used in other scripts executed by PHP 5.2 or earlier you might need to remove the old-passwords flag from your my.cnf file in X:\xampp\htdocs\PHP\8KConnxet883kkcm23.php on line 15
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