Attempting to restore old forum

[Mooseroom]

I apologize in advance, because when I say I have no idea what I'm doing I mean it.  I've had someone walk me through to this point, but I'm on my own now.

I'm trying to restore a forum that was almost certainly running SMF 1.1.15, so that's what I'm using for the sake of compatibility.  There is no offsite host - I'm just trying to restore it on my computer.  I've built a database from the forum files, but when I try to access it via Wampserver I get the following message:

Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

I have no idea what to do next, though the continuing refrain in Google searches seems to be "something wrong with your Settings.php file".  Unfortunately that's not very specific.

Thanks for your time.  Please bear in mind that I'm quite ignorant here - my apologies in advance.


EDIT: when I open repair_settings.php with Firefox after placing in the same folder as where my settings.php file is, I get a giant page of characters and gobbledygook with one giant line that says ', $context['is_legacy'] ? $txt['smf11_repair_settings'] : $txt['smf_repair_settings'], '

[Kindred]

you need to make sure that Settings.php has the correct database information in it. Open it with a text editor (like notepad++) and make sure it has the correct database, password, user and host strings...    then you can use repair_settings to correct the paths and urls

[Mooseroom]

you need to make sure that Settings.php has the correct database information in it. Open it with a text editor (like notepad++) and make sure it has the correct database, password, user and host strings...    then you can use repair_settings to correct the paths and urls

Thanks for your reply.  I have done that I think.  Following the instructions I was given earlier, I've changed:

$db_server =
$db_user =
$db_prefix =
password was left blank because it's just on my computer

$boarddir =
$sourcedir =

As well as deleting lines 57 and 58: if (file_exists(dirname(__FILE__) . '/install.php')) etc.

I've done nothing to lines 61-64, if that matters.

I also deleted the install.php and install_1-1.sql files.

[Kindred]

you did not need to delete any lines....

Did you set your database up with no password?   Because I don't think mySQL allows that....

[Illori]

you did not need to delete any lines....

Did you set your database up with no password?   Because I don't think mySQL allows that....

by default root password on wamp for mysql is nothing/blank.

[Mooseroom]

I restored the deleted lines and added a simple password but receive the same result.

Is there anything I can post/attach to assist?

[Mooseroom]

Bumping with an attachment of my Settings.php file.  Hopefully someone is willing to take a look.

I've checked the file paths many times to make sure it's not an obvious error, so I don't think that's it.

Thanks.

[Illori]

you should NEVER attach your settings.php file to a post here. i hope that really did not have your password in it... if so you should reset your database password

also since we are not on your system we dont know if your paths are correct or not.

[Mooseroom]

I understand that, but I said earlier, this is not a hosted forum - this is a offsite attempted recovery only available on my computer.  There's no actual site to hack.

As for the paths, I was thinking more the fundamental structure as one possible error (proper syntax, slashes and whatnot), rather than the actual path - as I said, I already double-checked the basic pathing itself.  The paths as I entered them were in the Settings file I posted, so that they could be checked.

Thanks for your reply.