Question

when I try open table in sql server management studio I receive the message

Timeout Expired

Then when I try and rename the table I get

Rename Failed Lock Request Time out Expired

Noting that it just contain one row with primary key field, datetime field and varbinary(max) field. and the other tables are working just fine. this occures once in a while.
so what should i do to resoulve this.

Answer 1

What do you mean open? Design window or query?

Check locks on your server first:

exec sp_lock

To set database singleuser you can do this:

USE master;
GO
ALTER DATABASE db SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE;
GO
USE db;
GO
--DO YOUR WORK HERE
GO
ALTER DATABASE db SET MULTI_USER;

Some helpful stored procedures and dynamic views:

select DB_NAME(1)
select OBJECT_NAME(1131151075,1)

exec sp_lock
-- locks for sesion 51
exec sp_lock 51

select DB_NAME(dbid)
select OBJECT_NAME(ObjId,dbid)

select * from sys.dm_tran_locks

select * from sys.dm_exec_connections
select * from sys.dm_exec_sessions
select * from sys.dm_tran_active_transactions
select * from sys.dm_tran_database_transactions

You can also watch activity monitor and kill sesion that create lock.
There is more information about that:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173730.aspx