SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005 may temporarily stop responding on a Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1-based computer

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SYMPTOMS

If you run Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computer, SQL Server may temporarily stop responding (hang) in certain cases. Depending on the severity of the problem, this behavior may take from several milliseconds to several minutes.

In most cases, you may notice that the value in the "Batch Requests/sec" counter of the SQLServer:SQLStastics performance object drops significantly in the System performance monitor. Sometimes, the counter value drops to 0. Additionally, you may notice a similar decrease in CPU utilization and in disk utilization.

In some cases, the following error message may be logged in the SQL Server errorlog file:

Error: 17883, Severity: 1, State: 0 server Process 162:0 (0) UMS Context 0x11DE8B68 appears to be non-yielding on Scheduler 1.

This problem occurs when one or more of the following conditions are true:

SQL Server runs lots of batches in which errors are raised. These errors include both error messages that are returned to the client connection and internal exceptions such as attention events.
SQL Server is running on a computer that has lots of CPUs and lots of RAM installed. This problem may be more pronounced on 64-bit operating systems.

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CAUSE

This problem occurs because SQL Server threads are stuck behind an internal Windows lock mechanism that identifies the process address. If lots of threads are waiting for the lock, this problem may occur.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, install the hotfix for Windows Server 2003 SP1 that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base 919341. For more information about this hotfix, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

919341 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919341/ ) A program that uses structured exception handling may stop responding for several seconds in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

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MORE INFORMATION

We recommend that you install the following products to obtain optimal performance:

Windows Server 2003 SP1 together with the hotfix that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 919341
SQL Server 2005 or later versions of SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2000 build 8.00.2187 or later versions of SQL Server 2000

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