Re: Newby needs some help - collation/charset ?

[Rick James]

> Quick off-topic question, is it possible to just convert the dB to InnoDB and the forum will work?

I don't know specifics about that software, but it is very likely that it will be oblivious to the change.
ALTER TABLE foo ENGINE=InnoDB;

> This I don't understand. MySQL errors used to display

Sorry, can't explain that.

> Here's the thing, the SQL INSERT command that it coughs on when running through the web browser (PHP) actually works fine when directly entered via MySQL workbench.

Possibly a character set difference during the connection.

> I used to be on 5.3.24 and I've confirmed the php file works, now on 5.4.14 and nada....

Which interface are you using? mysql_? mysqli_? PDO? You move away from mysql_ if that is what you are using. In particular, note:
mysql_set_charset, versus
mysqli_set_charset