Today I had a pressing problem at a SQL server 2012 hosted by a client. We have not experienced this before.

It hanged on a simple SELECT * FROM MyTable where there were only 400 records in this table. Even trying to get a subset of one or two records hanged.
Querying other tables was fine. Unfortunately I was not able to any detailed analysis on it as there were many users waiting our application come live again.

The ICT Department got the database live again by taking the database offline and bring it online again.

I suspect there was a deadlock situation, but post mortem there is little evidence for that.

We ran DBCC CheckDB on it and consistency of the database seemed fine.

Has anyone had this experience before? Any hints of what might have happened as I believed that the deadlock should have been taken care of automatically. Any SQL server 2012 settings to take a look at ?

Any help is appreciated.

Walter,