Can't use database library in CI - codeigniter

Question

For some reason I can't get the database library to work. Any time I put the line $this->load->database(); the script stops executing without returning any errors.
This is my database.php:
$db['default']['hostname'] = '127.0.0.1';
$db['default']['username'] = 'root';
$db['default']['password'] = '';
$db['default']['database'] = 'employee';
$db['default']['dbdriver'] = 'mysql';
$db['default']['dbprefix'] = '';
$db['default']['pconnect'] = TRUE;
$db['default']['db_debug'] = TRUE;
$db['default']['cache_on'] = FALSE;
$db['default']['cachedir'] = '';
$db['default']['char_set'] = 'utf8';
$db['default']['dbcollat'] = 'utf8_general_ci';
$db['default']['swap_pre'] = '';
$db['default']['autoinit'] = TRUE;
$db['default']['stricton'] = FALSE;
This is my model:
class Customers_model extends CI_Model
{
function __construct()
{
parent::__construct();
//$this->load->database();
}
function add_customer($data)
{
echo "BEFORE CHECK";
$this->load->database();
echo "OK";
}
}
As I said, it doesn't return any errors. So in this case the screen will return "BEFORE CHECK" but it wont: "OK". Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try to change persistent connection $db['default']['pconnect'] = TRUE; to $db['default']['pconnect'] = FALSE; Or you can enable error log in config file from $config['log_threshold'] = 4; where Threshold options :
0 = Disables logging, Error logging TURNED OFF
1 = Error Messages (including PHP errors)
2 = Debug Messages
3 = Informational Messages
4 = All Messages

Answer 2

Make sure that you have 'error_reporting = E_ALL' in your php.ini to display any errors that occurs.
After that, if you have wrong credentials you should see the error type.
In CodeIgniter (CI) is very easy to work with Database.
See:
http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/database/examples.html

Answer 3

Try changing
$db['default']['hostname'] = '127.0.0.1';
to
$db['default']['hostname'] = 'localhost';
make sure for the password as well

Answer 4

Ok, so it looks like everything started working fine as soon as I uncommented this line in php.ini: extension=php_mysql.dll
However why it was not returning any errors in CI ?

Answer 5

Are you sure you are in "development" mode? (look at the beginning of the index.php)
What happens if you manually trigger an error? trigger_error('blah blah', E_USER_ERROR);
edit: The problem may be because CodeIgniter masks many SQL-related errors (for instance see this recent issue). The easiest solution to debug your code would be to install Xdebug and enable the scream option.