These instructions will help you to start Microsoft SQL Server if you have opened your software and get a message that SQL Server has not started or cannot be started. Common reasons include SQL Server not starting or connecting on your server computer after a power outage or errors in the Windows startup process.
Microsoft SQL Server is database management software designed by Microsoft that holds all your business information like tickets, clients, products, services, etc. InkBook is the program that displays and manipulates that information. A properly working installation of SQL Server running on your server computer is absolutely crucial for InkBook to work.
If SQL cannot start, you may receive a message that looks similar to this one:
Restart Your Computer
It is recommended that you first restart the computer and attempt to open InkBook again. It may just be that SQL Server did not properly start up during the Windows startup process. If SQL Server is still not working after the restart and you still receive the message above, then you can try to start SQL Server manually.
Manually Start SQL Server
Go to Start Menu > All Programs > Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server 2012 > Configuration Tools > SQL Server Configuration Manager.
In the left hand pane, click SQL Server Services.
In the right hand pane, you should see SQL Server Browser. It should now show that it's Running in the State column. If it is not running, right-click on it.
Choose Start from the fly-out menu.
Right-click on the instance of SQL Server that is not functioning. It's probably named SQL Server (CMJ) or SQL Server (DSI) and should be displaying Stopped in the State column.
Choose Start from the fly-out menu.
If the instance starts, close SQL Server Configuration Manager and open your software again. It should connect to your database without a problem. If it does not start, continue to the next section.
Locating SQL Server Configuration Manager with Windows 10
Sometimes the SQL Server Configuration Manager will not be listed in All Programs with Windows 10. In this situation, you will need to manually navigate to the SQL Server Configuration Manager within the Windows files.
Go to Start Menu > File Explorer.
In the left hand pane, click on the drive labeled as (C:).
Select Windows > SysWOW64 > SQLServerManager12. Note that SQLServerManager may have a different number depending on the version of SQL installed.
Follow steps 2-7 in the Manually Starting SQL Server section above.
Reinstall SQL Server
It may be necessary to reinstall SQL Server if it will no longer start automatically with the Windows startup process or start manually through the Microsoft SQL Server Configuration Manager. If you use InkBook Version 11 or lower, you can find instructions here. If you use InkBook Version 12 or 13, instructions can be found here.