Did you ever find out why xp_cmdshell only worked intermittently? I have a similar problem, but mine is running BCP and it just hangs. I have to restart the SQL Server to get BCP to stop.

The BCP code used to work, but then it just stopped working a few days ago and hasn't worked since. It is not BCP, because I can run that manually from the Cmd prompt with no problem. I cannot manually run xp_cmdshell with the BCP command from SSMS and I get a syntax error.

Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks!