Need some guidance figuring out what went wrong. I've been using mysql, phpmyadmin for just under a year on my home computer while I develop a webapp. 3 days ago I updated my windows vista with all the "wonderful" microsoft updates, security patches, etc...and now it's broke. I tried uninstalling all the upgrades, but there are 4 of them I can't unistall because microsoft says their "operating system" updates and can't be unistalled.

My system is: windows vista, php 5+, mysql 5.1, Apache 2+.

I can run my web app and it queries the database without any problems. However, when I run phpmyadmin to get into the database I get an error: "mysqld.exe has stopped working" and phpmyadmin crashes. I tried going to the command line for mysql to do a mysqldump to backup my database and it gives me an error "2013, could not connect to the server". If I restart the computer the webapp will work again. Basically, php can query the database, but if I try to get at the database through phpmyadmin, or the command prompt the mysqld.exe error occurs and blows mysql out.

Any ideas what's going on here? Any ideas how to get around this to backup the db, so I can reinstall mysql?. I'm really lost where to start. I don't really know if the updates caused the problem, or if the 4 updates that can't be unistalled are really the problem.

Any tips will be appreciated. thanks.