Hi,
I am using MySQL 5.5.13 / PHP 5.3.6 / phpMyAdmin 3.4.2 / on Windows 2003 Server Standard.
I have a strange issue here. It is to do with the Polish character - ó - (and probably others as well).
When I enter the above character directly into MySQL using phpMyAdmin it goes in fine.
When I use the php function mysql_Query(), I get the following error, "Incorrect string value: '\xF3 ...".
I have tried using "mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'")" and "mysql_query("SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'")", but still it fails. I have tried changing the field collation in MySQL from UTF-8 to standard Latin and back. I have even tried using iconv() function but that give an illegal character error.
The strange thing is that I have a similar setup on another server using MySQL 5.1.33 / PHP 5.2.9, and it works fine for all characters.
Can any one advise please.

Have you tried printing out the INSERT statement within your PHP code? It looks like there are more characters being included during the INSERT statement.

wasn't there a question about this not so long ago
can't rememebr if the resolution was a PHP problem, a MySQL problem (with Version 5) or there was no resolution
have a look in either / or the PHP 7 MySQL forums for UTF8 or character encoding problems