Alright I hope to make this very easy to follow and easy to answer... rofl! ha! I have now idea what's going on and I'm a little annoyed at it!

First I didnt have the extensions directory stated correctly... so it wasnt loading the php_mysql extension... that's all cleared up and php sees mysql. (I didnt put a / AFTER the directory!)

I had that problem before and i couldnt figure it out so i updated everything. I got the newest php the newest apache and the newest mysql (newest recommended not betas).

The old MySQL was like 4.01 or something like that, it was a while ago and it didnt remove the windows service so i had to reinstall it and remove it from cmd... it was a process (trial and error and luck)

I have no redundant services and both apache and mysql are running all the time and mysql is "ready for connections" but php wont connect.

I'm using win 2k fyi.

I'll just try to immitate my code - on a different computer right now

<?
mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "root"); //yeah yeah it's *insecure*
mysql_select_db("gallery");
$query = "select * from news";
$results = mysql_query($query);
echo $results;
?>

I have a or die statement after the connect and after the select db... and it wont connect to the db... so it doesnt go any further.

I think I gave you all the info you need... yep

oh and php is running as a module if that matters.