I found that it must be something with the initial database creation i'm following in my Yii tutorial. If I remove that folder from they mysql folder at:
C:\Program Files\Ampps\mysql\data
Then MySql starts just fine. I could then even place the folder back but phpmyadmin seemed to run slow as well.
I'll try and trouble shoot why the Yii database (1 table in the DB) is causing the issue, but have moved on in the book already.
But hope this helps someone else if they come across the same problem.