search not working

[Tick]

I think we may have found it -- the case sensitivity issue, anyway. Your provider's script set up the database wrong. MySQL treats binary collations as case sensitive, meaning "Nintendo" would not be the same as "nintendo". Try the following on the products_description and manufacturers tables:

1. Go to the structure of the table (as you did in the screenshot you linked to).
2. Check the box on the left of each row that has a collation listed. In the screenshot you made, that would be for the rows containing products_name, products_description, and products_url.
3. Edit the checked items by clicking on the pencil down at the bottom of the listing. I've edited in a big red arrow pointing to it in the attached screenshot.
4. A screen will come up listing the properties of each field. Change the collation to "utf8_general_ci". For each field.
5. Click "Save".
6. Try the "Nintendo" search again. You should get both products.
7. If it works, you will need to repeat the process (except for testing the search) on every table in the cart.

You might also want to try the "DS" search again. I'm not sure why that one isn't working, but it will be nice if this fixes it too!

BTW, don't worry about being a beginner. We all started somewhere. You managed to navigate around in phpMyAdmin using only my (sketchy) instructions, so I'd say you're doing pretty well!