Script for a quick PHP MySQL DB connection test.

db-connect-test.php

<?php
# Fill our vars and run on cli
# $ php -f db-connect-test.php

$dbname = 'name';
$dbuser = 'user';
$dbpass = 'pass';
$dbhost = 'host';

$connect = mysqli_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die("Unable to Connect to '$dbhost'");
$connect->select_db($dbname) or die("Could not open the db '$dbname'");

$test_query = "SHOW TABLES FROM $dbname";
$result = $connect->query($test_query);

$tblCnt = 0;
while($tbl = $result->fetch_array()) {
  $tblCnt++;
  #echo $tbl[0]."<br />\n";
}

if (!$tblCnt) {
  echo "There are no tables<br />\n";
} else {
  echo "There are $tblCnt tables<br />\n";
}

I think you are mixing procedural and object methods - http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_mysql_select.asp