[BirdOPrey5]

Notepad++ is not the same as Windows Notepad.

Notepad++ is a good text editor, I have used it for years- it is not the problem.

When you get a database error simply "View source" of the page and the real database error will be in the code.

php.ini is not a vbulletin file. It is a file that usually isn't needed at all- it allows you (on some server setups) to override default php settings.