It ended up being a missing line in the php.ini file!

extension=mysql.so

was missing.

It had the dll's for the windows stuff and I saw a couple of ".so" 
extensions but not the mysql one. I added that and it's up!!

Thank you all so very much for your support. I'm learning a lot!! 
Sometimes I think it's more than I want, but I'm having fun at it too!

pete