mySQL Imports stopped working (no replies)

I have always been able to grab a snapshot of various websites (mostly Joomla websites) and drop them down onto my localhost WAMP. Now, however, the importing via PHPMyAdmin on the WAMP side always chokes on any line with an escaped apostrophe or quote mark. If I have a five records and only one of them has -- for example "O\'Rourke', I can only get it to work by replacing the \' with a backtick. But this isn't how it should work.

Is there a setting I need to change? I've looked all over for something and I can't find it.

This has ALWAYS worked in the past!

TIA.

-- John Kiernan