ODBC SQL Server Memory General Network Error


Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error ‘80004005’
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Shared Memory]General network error. Check your network documentation.
/site/path/to/script/aspfile.asp, line #

..and that’s what it throws you!

At about this point you may want to scream, or just be a tad annoyed by that damn machine running your site.
Basically your server is either one of two things, and those are:

  1. Overloaded
  2. Server is “Just Plain Shit”

The error is caused because the script is struggeling to connect to the database server – may it even be in the same damn box with same IP and all – and sometimes fails, so shows you it’s overloaded groan.

The ways to correct this are to:

  1. Ping the IP to see if there is any reply.
  2. Confirm the database server is actually running.
  3. Try login via remote desktop and see if there are any processes flooding the CPU usage.
  4. FTP into the machine to see if all connections to it are slow or just the SQL server.
  5. ..or you could just wait a few minutes and check again, this is often all it needs.

Point number 5 can only be seen as a hope more than an actual fix.

If you site has a lot of traffic and it cannot afford random downtimes then you will need to investigate the problem and even fork out some more $$$ for an upgrade to that box that keeps freezing on everyone!