XAMPP MySQL Cannot connect: invalid settings - php

Question

I'm trying to use mysql with xampp on windows 7 and I'm getting lot of errors.
I am able to run mysql through the command prompt just fine, so long as it is not running in xampp. here are the things I've done so far:
changed skype port settings
changed the password that xampp uses to match my mysql password
changed environment variables and PATH variable in windows 7
removed all oracle database related things in environment variables and PATH
Of note is that I can't use xampp and mysql while mysql server is listening on port 3036. I installed MySQL server 5.7.
Here is an image of my xampp dashboard:
http://i.imgur.com/g9gVV6w.png
Below is my mysql_error file contents:
2016-12-05 21:40:28 f1c InnoDB: Warning: Using
innodb_additional_mem_pool_size is DEPRECATED. This option may be
removed in future releases, together with the option
innodb_use_sys_malloc and with the InnoDB's internal memory allocator.
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB:
innodb_empty_free_list_algorithm has been changed to legacy because of
small buffer pool size. In order to use backoff, increase buffer pool
at least up to 20MB.
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Using mutexes to ref count
buffer pool pages
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is
disabled
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use
Windows interlocked functions
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: _mm_lfence() and _mm_sfence()
are used for memory barrier
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib
1.2.3
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Using generic crc32
instructions
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size
= 16.0M
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Completed initialization of
buffer pool
2016-12-05 21:40:28 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Highest supported file format
is Barracuda.
2016-12-05 21:40:29 3868 [Note] InnoDB: 128 rollback segment(s) are
active.
2016-12-05 21:40:29 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Waiting for purge to start
2016-12-05 21:40:29 3868 [Note] InnoDB: Percona XtraDB
(http://www.percona.com)
5.6.32-79.0 started; log sequence number 1840435
2016-12-05 21:40:29 6480 [Note] InnoDB: Dumping buffer pool(s) not yet
started
2016-12-05 21:40:29 3868 [Note] Plugin 'FEEDBACK' is disabled.
2016-12-05 21:40:29 3868 [Note] Server socket created on IP: '::'.
2016-12-05 21:40:29 3868 [Note] c:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe: ready
for connections.
Version: '10.1.19-MariaDB' socket: '' port: 3306 mariadb.org binary
distribution

Answer 1

I'm nonplussed.
I configured mysql to login as user root with a password. However it worked when I tried to login with no password.