What happens if you set it directly in the database?
 
Nancy
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.


From: Jason P.

This is doesn't have to be significative, but I've noticed that my
Drupal 7.15 test site reset every connection attempt if I put this
directive in my.cnf (MySQL config file):

    collation-server=utf8_spanish_ci

Reverting the change of course brings back Drupal to its normal
behavior, but I wonder the reason of that situation.

Any ideas?? This is solely for learning purposes not for production
settings ;)