While attempting to install Moodle on the listed configuration, I ran into the almost famous "It is required that you store all your data in Unicode format (UTF-8). New installations must be performed into databases that have their default character set as Unicode. If you are upgrading, you should perform the UTF-8 migration process (see the Admin page)." problem.

Upon performing further investigation:

When reaching line 369 of the installer file, $records is an array with first key being blank, not 'character_set_database' as expected, hence the "ALTER DATABASE" SQL query will never run.

The same problem applies on Line 171 of lib/setuplib.php

I added debug code (couple of var_dumps) to try and see what caused it - see attachment.

This is preventing me from installing Moodle.