#10 hit home with me. Below is my gereral query after importing a standard template profile into a table and selecting out queries for a user1, user2, or user3....

maybe as a place to start, try this to check named pipes (which was in error message).  From Books Online  (named pipes).  Good luck.

Named Pipes

Client Connections

The following...

two things I'd check

1) Is sa passoword blank ?  (below from BOL)

Note  If a user attempts to connect to an instance of SQL Server providing a blank login name, SQL Server...

Great Article.  I've been investigating performance issues and using SHOWCONTIG.  I'm going to use these queries.  Thanks.  bblack