norton antivirus has been preventing sql server 2000 from starting up -- causing this event log :
Error: 17883, Severity: 1, State: 0
The Scheduler 0 appears to be hung. SPID 0, ECID 0, UMS Context 0x02EFA3C8
disabiling norton (or excluding all relevant sql server directories from nav), will set things straight. many DBA's will tell you norton is a problem. in rare cases the only solution is to remove nav entirely. yes.
in this case, sql server gets through startup-recovery-tasks, but becomes stuck when finally ready to spin up connections -- can't get a handle on some resource norton has injected itself into, or outright stolen.
Here's Norton's KB summary :
Can Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition scan a SQL database?
Situation:
This document discusses whether Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition can scan a SQL database.
Solution:
Symantec AntiVirus cannot scan the contents of the SQL database because it is in a proprietary file format. However, you can install Symantec AntiVirus onto a SQL server to protect the operating environment and file system.
When you install Symantec AntiVirus onto a SQL server, configure Symantec AntiVirus to exclude the SQL database files from real-time and manual or scheduled scans.