mySQL crashing

I recently upgraded my copy of XAMPP to the latest version and ever since then whenever I start to use phpmyadmin it crashes mySQL very soon afterwards.

What have I forgotten to update when I upgraded XAMMP?

After having made backups of all sites, code and databases on the old XAMP did you then completly remove the old version before installing the new version - maybe there is a bit of the old version lurking around causing trouble for the new version

What errors are being reported by either PHP, MySQL or Apache whenever MySQL is crashing?

The only one of those logs showing anything when mySQL crashes is the PHP log.

The exact message is different each time but each starts with:

PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in D:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\libraries\…

where the exact file and line is different each time.

Just downloaded and installed a newer version of phpmyadmin - perhaps that might make a difference.

What versions of PHP and MySQL are you running?