Yes - on both counts.  However I was not aware that the DriverManager is not thread safe - i'll have to read up on it. 

So, regardless,  what is the...

the stored procedure makes an sql updates call to a specific table.  The table itself has a fixed number of entries.  The application simply reads a datafeed that updates these...

Thank you all - I'll apply these answers to the index this evening.

Stewart:  Same here - definitely gaining an strong appreciation for sql server - it's not near the bear...

Yes, as I said, the table is hit very hard with user queries and other internal queries.

Forgive my ignorance as I'm a programmer being asked to fill a DBA's shoes,...

Thanks for all the input.  if it's true that each NIC is assigned a processor then I can stop worrying about performance as this particular server has 3 NIC's  -...

2 things to note - 1) This is the only index on the table and 2) The table is pinned.

We have the memory to spare and the table is hit...

Thank Phil, but I went to every place in microsoft land and most everyplace that Google turned up when i Searched for

"time out occurred while waiting for buffer latch type...

Thanks for the info fellas,

I do know that I see "with [nolock]" all over the place when look at the stored procedures.

I'm going to have to start becoming very familiar with...

Success!!

Thank you Veteran and my thanks to all of you that offered your advice.  After reading up on pretty much everything you all suggested I now advance from "Newbie" to...

Veteran,

Just did some reading on Pinned tables and clustered indexing.  Thank you for the information - it is definitely something to try.

As for whether or not the RAM disk is...

Grasshopper,

I know from the Purchase Order that the machine contains 4 38GB SCSI drives.  Windows reports the partitions as:

Dell Utility Partition: 30MB

C: ~11 GB

D: ~57 GB

I have no idea how...

We make an ODBC connection from the feeder app to the database.  The network for the database is isolated and is a 100Mb/s.

As near as I can tell the feeder...

Looking deeper I found the updating scheme was a little more involved.  The feeder application reads in a table that enumerates all the stock symbols and provides a unique integer...

All 4 tables have indexes. 

All columns in all tables are fixed length. 

The "where" clause in each instance uses 3 columns to uniquely identify a single record (Exchange, Session, and...