phpmyadmin connection to mysql problem

[Walt49]

I have Windows 7 box with PHP 5.3.1, MySQL 5.1 and Apache 2.2.14 installed. Everything is working smoothly, except phpmyadmin connection is rejected by MySQL. I tried all
possible ways with the same negative result. Phpmyadmin config.inc.php file has exactly
the same user name and password like MySQL, but MySQL rejects them. I tested MySQL
from a command line with -u root -p johndoe , it works fine. I created a new database with new user name and password. Tested it. From command line its OK, but
same user and password from phpmyadmin was again rejected by MySQL. Thanks in advance.

[westin]

Not sure if it will help, and is kind of dated, but you might give this thread a read:

http://lists.mysql.com/mysql/163034

In that
case, root@localhost has a password, so you must supply it to connect as
root@localhost using phpmyadmin. First, make sure that the correct password
is set in config.inc.php. If the password is set correctly, phpmyadmin
should connect to mysql. If it fails, and mysql says "Using password: NO",
it means mysql didn't receive a password, but if mysql says "Using password: YES", it means mysql received the password but didn't recognize it.

Welcome to AO!

[Walt49]

Thanks for the response.
This is the result of my last attempt to connect from phpmyadmin:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Error
MySQL said:

Cannot connect: invalid settings.

phpMyAdmin tried to connect to the MySQL server, and the server rejected the connection. You should check the host, username and password in your configuration and make sure that they correspond to the information given by the administrator of the MySQL server.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- config.inc.php
/* User for advanced features */
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'root';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = 'johndoe';
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And this is my attempt to connect from the command line:

C:\>mysql -u root -p
Enter password: *******
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 9
Server version: 5.0.90-community-nt MySQL Community Edition (GPL)

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can't figure out where is the problem ? Thanks.

[TG2]

what are your host, connection type and auth type set to in config.inc.php?