Resolved: Quality Center 11 Installation Issue "Failed to validate database parameters"

I've been having issues trying to get Quality Center 11 installed, I kept getting the "Failed to validate database parameters" error message on the database server screen.

The server setup was as follows:

Windows Server 2003
SQL Server 2005 Express

There were a couple of things I had to do:

1. Under the SQL Server Configuration Manager, ensure that the SQL Server Browser Service is Running (I had to enable this service as it was not on by default).
2. The DB Host name should include the server name followed by \sqlexpress. So on my box it was set to: win2003\sqlexpress. Note: I have tried this on Windows Server 2008 and I did not need to provide \sqlexpress (although you do need to enable mixed authentication mode)
3. Use MS-SQL Authentication - use the sa account details for the db admin and username details (you should check that you know these details first)

 Hopefully that should get you past the database page - it took me hours to get around all of this!