nonghead-webspam (7/1/2014)
Reason I want to use NoLock is because queries are returning slowly. Instructions say that is what it is good for.This is on a reporting database, not a transactional database, though there are datadumps on a daily basis, pulling fresh data in. but only at prescribed times, not all day long.
I wonder where did you found this instructions from. You should stick it to the closest rubbish bin you can find.
NoLock is not the method to improve the query performance - it is a road to return really dirty data. It may not return data which exists in a table, and it may return data which is not already there...
It has nothing to do what type of database you are working on.
If you investigate and "google" :-), you will find a lot of material on this subject. One of the MSDN one which I recommend to read first:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidlean/archive/2009/04/06/sql-server-nolock-hint-other-poor-ideas.aspx