Can't get past "Set up database" step during the installation

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Hello,

I am trying to install drupal on my local machine but I got stuck at the "Set up database" step of installation. After filling in all the fields and hitting "Save and continue" button all I am getting is a blank page (resulting from a php timeout).

I am under Windows 7, have Drupal 6.17, PHP 5.3.2, Apache 2.2 and MySQL 5.1.48.

Both default.settings.php and settings.php files are present in the sites\default directory.

I set full permissions for anyone on settings.php file.

The database exists, the username and password are correct.

I tried changing the $db_url = 'mysql://username:password@localhost/databasename'; line in settings.php so that all the details were there but that only resulted in "Site off-line" Drupal page being displayed. I changed the db server from localhost to 127.0.0.1 in settings.php and same thing happened. That when I was trying with http://localhost/drupal, when I tried with http://localhost/drupal/install.php I got "In your ./sites/default/settings.php file you have configured Drupal to use a mysql server, however your PHP installation currently does not support this database type." error instead.

I have the extension php_mysqli.dll enabled in php.ini. Using php_mysql.dll instead doesn't make any difference.

I extended the max_execution_time setting in php.ini file to 60.