SQL Hell – Error Establishing Database Connection

I realize this is a common topic. I’ve been working on the problem for a couple days with no luck. I’ve also spent a couple hours reading these and other forums. I don’t think I’ve found a solution.

My wp-config.php is correct. Trust me.

Here’s the situation:

1) I had a working blog. http://www.lostrepublic.us hosted with GoDaddy.com
2) The database was called lostrepublic_us . I exported a 4.7 MB sql file.
3) I made some cosmetic changes to the SQL file (got rid of some garbage characters – ’ – that appeared next to hyphens and umlauts.)
4) The process I’ve successfully used before for restoring a database is this:
– make sure I have the original exported file as a backup
– delete the database
– create a blank database with the same name
– import all the sql commands (minus the leading “create database”)
5) I tried and failed to restore the corrected database file. A few things went wrong. Worrying that I messed something up in cleaning out the garbage characters, all I’m trying to do now is restore the original backup. Forget the edits, forget fixing the garbage characters. Please help me restore the original.
6) Two things seem to have gone wrong:
a. I accidentally exported both my own database and “information_schema” which I’ve learned is a system map of my database.
b. GoDaddy will no longer let me create a database with an underscore character.
7) I don’t seem to have privileges to create “information_schema” on GoDaddy’s server. From what I’ve learned, I don’t think I need to. The system creates that database. Right? The .sql file breaks up evenly into my database, and the information_schema database. I simply deleted the information_schema, and tried importing the rest. It imports successfully.
8) Since GoDaddy no longer lets me create lostrepublic_us, I created lostrepublicus. In the .sql file, I did a simple text replace. The file imports successfully. I also updated the wp-config file to reflect the vanished “_”.
9) Even though the file imports, I get the common “Error Establishing Database Connection”

Incidentally, I can import either database successfully – the one in which I fixed the garbage characters, or the original backup, but either way I get the message “Error Establishing Database Connection.”

I’m beginning to get desperate. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.