SQL Service hanging with Change Pending Error

Here’s a strange error I experienced when attempting to restart a SQL Server Service. The Service wouldn’t restart , the status was hanging on “Change Pending”.  

I’d seen this error before, but during installations. I hadn’t seen it when the service was established. I checked the SQL Server Error logs – which I had to access directly via the file system and read as a palin text file, as I couldn’t access SQL Server . There were no clues in the logs to suggest what may have caused this error.

I also checked the Applications sections of Windows Event Log and there wasn’t anything useful.

I then remembered there had been some changes over the weekend – causing loss of connectivity of the server to the network. So it was possible some issue had arisen , as a consequence.

As the server had not restarted , it suggested there was some residual activity running in the memory. Checked the TASK MANAGER – noticed sqlserver.exe was still running. Killed the process . I was able to start SQL Server OK

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