You are probably on to other things by now, but just in case. I had same problem and found that MySQL was creating the empty database for ZenCart using InnoDB as the engine instead of MyISAM. Even though the install scripts have MyISAM as the engine it still causes the the install to fail. I had to use MySQL's Workbench to login to the server administration. Select Configuration, Options, and the General tab. Find 'default-storage-engine' and check the check box and set it to MyISAM. The database for ZenCart can then be created (new) using phpMyAdmin and the default engine will be MyISAM. The zc_install should work okay after these changes.