[aceor44]

Update:

I uninstalled MySQL, and tried to reinstall it. There was an error message at the last stage of reinstall (security issue), however the app was installed. So I uninstalled again, and then manually deleted the leftover files in various directories (yeah Windows). I reinstalled again, and chose the manual setup wizard. When doing so, it presented me with an option to change the master DB password, which I did, and bam! everything started working. So, Dilligaf ..... your thoughts were correct (permission issue), however, I still can't understand what happened the first time. but it's fixed now, and I have a working centralized db!

Thanks for your advice.

Now ... off to another forum to post a question about why my TVDB scrapper is not downloading banners, but will do so if I manually refresh a show.