Using PDO to connect Mysql database not working

I am trying to using the PDO module in my PHP code to connect to the database. I have read and search the similar topics, but I can't figure out what I have done wrong. Please help me to solve the issue.

1. Apache version: Apache/2.2.21 (Win32) PHP/5.3.10

2. in the php.ini file, I un-commented the line: extension=php_mysql.dll

   2a. phpinfo function showed 'Loaded Configuration File' location is C:\php\php.ini

   2b. PDO driver information showed by phpinfo function:
   under PDO section: PDO drivers–>Mysql (enabled)
   under PDO Driver for MySQL section: client API version–>mysqlnd 5.0.8-dev – 20102224 – $Revision: 321634 $ (enabled)

Code I used to connection to the database

$db_user = "uid";
$db_pass = "pd";

$db_connect = new PDO('mysql:host=locahost; dbname=practice; charset=UTF-8', $db_user, $db_pass);
if($db_connect){
    print "connected to the db " . "<br />";
} else{
    print "error connects to the db. " . mysql_error();
}

The error message I received:

• Warning: PDO::__construct() [pdo.–construct]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. in C:\server\htdocs\html-exer\handle_reg3.php on line 14
• Warning: PDO::__construct() [pdo.–construct]: [2002] php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. (trying to connect via tcp://locahost:3306) in C:\server\htdocs\html-exer\handle_reg3.php on line 14
• Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known. ' in C:\server\htdocs\html-exer\handle_reg3.php:14 Stack trace: #0 C:\server\htdocs\html-exer\handle_reg3.php(14): PDO->__construct('mysql:host=loca…', 'root', 'password') #1 {main} thrown in C:\server\htdocs\html-exer\handle_reg3.php on line 14

Edit: Added answer asking for further information that will no doubt be deleted shortly:

Hello Your Common Sense:
Thanks for the code fragment. It helped me to resolve the issue. It appears that the charset may be the cause. Here is my code to connect to the db

$dsn= 'mysql:host=localhost; dbname=practice; charset=utf8';
$db_user = "root";
$db_pass = "mypd";

 $db_connect = new PDO($dsn, $db_user, $db_pass);
 if($db_connect){
     print "connected to the db " . "<br />";
 }