adventureworks2008 hangs pc hard

Question

What is going on?

Ive been working with SQL dbs for around 10 years.  Ive just bought the mcts exam 70-433 DB development book.  Ive installed northwind and adventureworksdw2008 no problem.  Trying to install adventureworks2008 hangs my pc hard.  Explorer.exe nonresponsive.  All applications hang.  Ive tried to install via configuration management and tsql.  Im not a newbie, but even if i was, is this the shiny robot 2012 future i was promised?  Where some problem occurs and the entire pc goes down ?  Is this really it?  This is the MS future?  Honestly ?  Is it acceptable to have to trawl around the web to try and understand how to install a SAMPLE db ? 

Im absolutely bewildered by this.  Not neccesarily the install problem, i mean these things happen however annoying.  But to hang the system solid like it was 1984 and everything was perched on top of msdos ?

Ive installed everything completely and utterly to spec, rebooted of course, even reinstalled SQL2008.  Same issue.  Nothing in event viewer beyond "Starting up database AdventureWorks2008".

This is a SAMPLE db just to get people some tables to play with right ?

Answer 1

Hi Jim(1x36),

I purchased the same book and didn't have any issues installing any of the databases on my 2yr old laptop. I have also installed the same sample database on various PC's and Servers in out office without any issue.

What's the spec of your PC? What resources is the installation consuming i.e. Memory, CPU and Harddrive.?  Have you tried copying the installation files to your local harddrive and installing them from there?  Are you trying to install the data and log files on the same drive as your OS’s pagefile?  You mentioned that all applications hang, what applications are you running while doing the install?

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Jeff Wharton
MSysDev (C.Sturt), MDbDsgnMgt (C.Sturt), MCT, MCPD, MCITP, MCDBA
Blog: Mr. Wharty's Ramblings
MC ID: Microsoft Transcript

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Answer 2

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it.

Ive calmed down a bit now :)   (holding on to the '1' key to get a unique name is perhaps a sign to close eyes and breathe a little)

To get this to work I had to download the adventureworks DB from the web.  I cannot get the db from the CD installed.  Using the same t-sql, or just attaching it from the GUI on the downloaded version works fine.

Really odd.  It hung the PC hard and no mistake.  I had no other applications running in the taskbar., Just SSMS.  The files were being installed from C:\ (copied over from the CD).  This is the same location as the OS and SSMS, and the OS pagefile.  After about 10 seconds of trying to attach, the file menu on SSMS turned white.  Right click on the task bar to bring up task manager; nothing.  Clicking start; nothing.  Hover over clock to get the date tooltip; nothing.  CTRL+ALT+DEL......well you get the picture.  I left it for 10-20 mins, still the same, only turning off at the wall was possible, nothing in the event viewer.

PC is XP,SP3. Core2Quad@2.3GHZ,3GB of ram.

Thanks for your time. I think i'll just get on with passing the exam now, forget this ever happend..!

Best,

Jim

Answer 3

Very strange indeed.  Good luck with the exam

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Jeff Wharton
MSysDev (C.Sturt), MDbDsgnMgt (C.Sturt), MCT, MCPD, MCSD, MCITP, MCDBA
Blog: Mr. Wharty's Ramblings
Twitter: @Mr_Wharty
MC ID: Microsoft Transcript