gibberish code showing: DB problem - Joomla! Forum - community, help and support

hi,

i'm having strange issue development site.
i've got new macbook pro running on os x 10.7.4 , i'm using mamp 2.1.1.
my previous macbook pro running os x 10.6.8 mamp 1.9
i copied/pasted files directory mamp/db/mysql 1 laptop other.

all seems work fine. 1 site showing strange character when refreshing page (see attached screenshot) on front end or end.

i have no answer on mamp forum. in fact, posted question couple of days ago , still not approved moderator. hence no answers mamp community.

i've been reading lot, since i'm not mysql guru, i'm confused in problem.
i'm hopping not problem of corrupted db.

i wanted check few things here. when open phpmyadmin , @ "variables" tab see "default storage engine" set innodb "storage engine".
i see "character set connection" , "character set database" other similar variables set "latin1".

are these normal values these variables?

thanks in advance

unfortunately due glitch forum server image lost.

joomla 2.5.6 requires collation character set utf8-general-ci , misfunction latin1 hence dodgy characters getting.

did original site installation use latin1 or utf8?
you should try dump'ing files original site using phpmyadmin , importing them new database on new mamp server rather copy & paste files data directory. copying original site files mamp/web_root/.
either way make sure database server on new mamp set utf8 collation character set.

alternatively use akeeba backup do