The account SQLServer is running under has local admin rights on the server and I was logged in as that account.  So the xp_cmdshell and cmd line had the same...

Try to start SQL Server from control panel/services.  If you were using a domain account for your sql services it could have lost some privileges.   I’ve seen this error...

the only time I ever saw something like this was due to the thread starvation.

Run this DBCC SQLPERF (UMSSTATS) while your...

Thank you Carl.  Sorry about the constraint.  I removed that column at the last minute. 

This might not be your case… But I've seen this happen with a query that had a lot of left joins.  Once I replaced all of them with not...

thank you very much for all of your replies.  I will check out everything that was suggested.

Thanks

The only problem is that the Alter statement is used for a completely different functionality that I found out about this morning by...

it's actually using ALTER TABLE <MyTable> DISABLE TRIGGER ALL.

Dropping the trigger caused the same error as ALTER.

Remi...you are awesome!!!

I got that same error message using pubs when I tried to disable triggers while the cursor was open.  Now I just have to recreate that problem in...

Hmm.  There is one process that drops the triggers and then recreates them.

Could that be it?

Here is the code.  thanks

ALTER  PROCEDURE ecmspEliminateDuplPhones(

   @CampaignID       BIGINT,

          @RuleID           INTEGER,

          @ErrorMessage    VARCHAR(4000) OUTPUT)

AS

  DECLARE @DuplPhoneNumber  CHAR(10)

  DECLARE @DuplPhones       TABLE (UserID BIGINT)

  DECLARE @ErrorNumber      INTEGER

  DECLARE @PhoneNumber      CHAR(10)

  DECLARE...

Just did.

I appreciate your help.  Any idea in general would be appreciated.  Unfortunately, I didn't find much on this error on the web. 

nope.  the only difference was that there were a little more concurrent processes running then usual.  And that cursor uses a local temp table.  No indexes on it.

"Do it once" approach is great... as long as it's not overdone.  I've inherited a system where all stored procedures and functions are written in this fashion. 

On one occasion...

very simple...lack of caffeine

I will keep that in mind the next time when I have the urge to ask a silly question.

thank you!