After Restore, WP is still trying to do a clean reinstall.

I have followed the codex for exporting and importing dbs 6 times now and they never work. After I restore the db and edit the wp-config what i get is the install screen as if somehow it’s using the db but can’t see any of the pre-existing settings or content.

As I said I have checked and rechecked the process for exporting and importing and I know I am doing as instructed. I have checked the db hostname, password, username, table prefix, everything and it’s all as it should be, on top of that nothing should be working at all if any of that was wrong. Why is WP not using the db it is pointed at correctly?