Showing $wpdb errors
Use show_errors() before a query, e.g.
if (current_user_can('administrator'))
$wpdb->show_errors();
Get last error
echo $wpdb->last_error;
Feel free to comment if you can add help to this page or point out issues and solutions you have found. I do not provide support on this site, if you need help with a problem head over to stack overflow.