Windows – MySQL server: Error 1067 (in services.msc) and Error 10061 (in thesqld console) – what troubleshooting may be attempted

I'm trying to install MySQL Community edition on a Windows 8.1 machine. To sum up the problem: whith the .msi installer I get MySQL registered as a service, but unable to start (error 1067); with a manual install I get the service running but the console gives back a 10061 error when checking for server functionality.

My question here is if anyone has familiarity with this kind of problem in Windows 8.1 and can hint
to a solution or at least figure out which may be the problem.

This is a much more detailed explanations of the same facts:

I encountered a problem with the configuration of the MysQL server, the server has installed and it is running in the Windows services, but the installation prompt stops at the "Starting Server" step of configuration. The log reads: "Stop servce. OK. Set service. OK. Set firewall. OK. Start service …" then it just stops there giving messages that signals that too much time is passing.

If I try to manually start the service from services.msc I get a 1067 error (process terminated unexpectedly). If I interrupt the configuration and try to proceed with the wizard I get a page wich list the MySQL server as installed but stopped and I can't establish a connection with the password I set up.

I may try to change the default port, but the configuration log says that nothing is wrong with the firewall. I tryed to do all of this from the Administrator account and the behavior is the same.

Then I tried to install the server manually from the Administrator account and eventually got a running service, but this is what I get:

..\bin>mysql –install MySQL56 –local-service
(and subsequently: ..\bin>mysql –install MySQL56)
Service successfully installed.
(The service is listed in services.msc as an automatically managed service).

..\bin>mysqlshow
msqlshow: Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10061)

..\bin>mysqlshow -u root mysql
msqlshow: Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10061)

..\bin>mysqladmin version status proc
mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10061)'
Check that mysqld is running on localhost and that the port is 3306.
You can check this by doing 'telnet localhost 3306'

..\bin>mysql test
ERROR 2003 (HY000): Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10061)

and I'm kind of unsure how to run that telnet command. anyways, since I'm trying to access the localhost I don't see how there could be problems with the data getting throught the port.

I found some general advice on some Chinese BBS with users who had the same errors, but none of them has been particularly useful (deleting my.ini, manually set localhost to 127.0.0.1, etc,).