i've had something similar, i never tracked the problem down exactly, but it was due to the content of the email it was sending.

do you have other alerts working...

i assume your using 2005 express beta...??

if so then when you get it working can you tell me how to create a datbase??????

i've installed and all you can do is...

you can usually reinstall your MDAC from microsoft downloads.

simply choose the version number you want and install.

maybe expressing the functions with an explicit alias (AS X, AS Y) might remove the problem?

as for count(0)

i don't know - never used it before , i always find...

i did this

select 'DBCC '+name+char(10)+char(13)+' GO ' from sysobjects

and got

DBCC sysobjects

GO

DBCC sysindexes

GO

DBCC syscolumns

GO

DBCC systypes

GO

DBCC syscomments

ok - have you installed something like XP service pack 2? this apparently tightens security - i wonder if it's done something stupid like block port 1434 or 1433

if not...

too many '

here's the corrected version

select 'DBCC '

+tablename

+char(10)

+char(13)

+' GO ' from TableList

also worth checking if any new software has been installed on your machine and if windows update has been run.

maybe the MDAC has been changed in some way?????

can you post the whole of the who2 command - your process is not being blocked, but i wonder if there is something else being blocked??

are other users struggling to...

why are you doing a count(0) ?

DOH!

just ignore everything i said - let me get more coffee and start again.

what if your minimum priority for that user is not 1?

also try connecting to the server using Query analyser and run the command

SP_WHO2

this should show you if anything is blocking your request.

what type of authentication are you using? i assume its SQL server authentication?

is it the sa username ?

has anyone been messing with your permissions on the target server?

if...

how about

delcare @namepart integer

declare curs1 cursor for select distinct namepart from mytable

open curs1

fetch next from curs1 into @namepart

while @@fetch_status=0

begin

delete from mytable where namepart=@namepart and priority not in (select min...