I don't know about seeing this problem with a brand new fresh install, never seen that, but I have on site migration/upgrades. I have tried all the same things to get it fixed as well.
I did finally get it cleared up however like so:
- do a fresh install of 2.2.5, or version you want
- after install is successful go to phpmyadmin and drop the default db tables and import the db from the site you want in place
- copy/paste over all your items in the assets folder minus the components folder
- double check everything in the config.inc file is correct
- re-run setup just to make sure it's ok, should be good now
- log in to the site and go to components and under packages and notice the components that were installed will be listed. however they will not work
- one by one remove each component, then re-download and re-install each (I do them one at a time so I can keep easy track where I'm at)
Done
This is not a beautiful solution and would be a big pain if you had dozens of add ons, but you get a fresh install of the newest version and lose the glitches, or at least I do.
Hope this helps