Database error with vBulletin installation 3.8

[cammot]

Can someone advise. Trying to install Vbulletin 3.8 and edited the conf.php as instructed. I am stuck with 'Database error' when I access the site to proceed with the install.

PHP 5
Mysql 5 +
Linux VPS server

dbname, username, pw are all correct. set database with 'localhost' and even tried the url link. all don't resolve the error.

Any thoughts or suggestions.
Thanks

[Dismounted]

And the error is? If you cannot see the error description, right-click and view the source of the page. The error message will appear in HTML comments.