detecting that a SQL db is running

[triode at xnet.co.nz]

Sorry if i did not make myself clear.  let me try again.

1. I have a series of servers running windows server 2003.
2  on each server there is an application running that communicates
with remote devices using email.
3. this application is made up from a series of modules that also
extract data from a local MSDE db.
4. this application pulls emails from remote devices,  interrogates a
the DB,  then passes on an XML message to a central server.
5.  I am intercepting  these XML messages to insert additional data
that I extract from the DB,  and then forward on to another
application.  Call this my local app.

The problem that I have is that the original application occasionally
hangs,  causing the DB to stop.  I have ASR routines in place to
re-boot the server when this happens.

I can detect when the db is up and not responding,  however,  if the DB
does not start at all,  my local application hangs.  I need to find a
way to determine if the DB has started,  that's all.

if any of you have any insight into how I can detect that the DB has
started as is running,  that would be very useful.

any contributions,  most gratefully received.

kind regards

bill