Local server install – “website cannot display the page”

I’m trying to install wp 2.6.3 on Windows XP running Apache server and MySQL 5.0.
The MS IE browser shows “website cannot display the page” after a long delay; the Apache error log contains:

[Tue Nov 11 10:57:05 2008] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] WordPress database error Table ‘wordpress.wp_options’ doesn’t exist for query INSERT INTO wp_options (option_name, option_value, autoload) VALUES (‘cron’, ‘a:2:{i:1226361425;a:1:{s:17:\\”wp_update_plugins\\”;a:1:{s:32:\\”40cd750bba9870f18aada2478b24840a\\”;a:3:{s:8:\\”schedule\\”;s:10:\\”twicedaily\\”;s:4:\\”args\\”;a:0:{}s:8:\\”interval\\”;i:43200;}}}s:7:\\”version\\”;i:2;}’, ‘yes’) made by add_option

My config file (partial) is:
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘root’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘root’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘127.0.0.1:3306’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value
define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8’);
define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);

MySQL is working, and Apache is able to render PHP documents.
I’ve now tried everything, except, of course, the one thing that I need to try.

Any clues would be appreciated.
TIA
Peter Hill