Can't get SQL Server to start or connect to my local database engine through SSMS

Question

SQL Server has been working fine but since Friday I have not been able to connect to the database engine in SSMS. This coincided with my having to power the laptop off during a Windows update because it appeared to be hanging (I don't know if these two are related).

Since then I have:

• Gone back to a restore point before the failed update
• Removed SQL Server 2008 from my machine
• Installed SQL Server 2012 onto my machine. This failed during the load
• Removed everything that was labelled SQL Server from my machine
• Redone the failed Windows updates
• Installed SQL Server 2012 which again failed on load
• Created a self-signed certificate (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753127(v=WS.10).aspx)
• Tried to start SQL Server from both Services and SSCM with no luck
• Tried various log on options for SQL Server - under the local system the service will start but I still can't connect to the database engine in SSMS
• Read endless posts and articles

Can anyone help me get SQL Server started on my machine, then connect to the database engine using SSMS?

The failure log for the installation gave the following information:

2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (SP1) - 11.0.3128.0 (X64)  Dec 28   2012 20:23:12  Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation  Enterprise Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 <X64> (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  (c) Microsoft Corporation.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  All rights reserved.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  Server process ID is 5116.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  System Manufacturer: 'SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.', System Model: 'RV411/RV511/E3511/S3511/RV711'.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  Authentication mode is WINDOWS-ONLY.
2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  Logging SQL Server messages in file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG'.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.34 Server  The service account is 'NT Service\MSSQLSERVER'. This is an informational message; no user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.35 Server  Registry startup parameters:   
 -d C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf    
 -e C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG    
 -l C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.35 Server  Command Line Startup Parameters:    
 -s "MSSQLSERVER"
 -m "SqlSetup"
 -Q
 -q "Latin1_General_CI_AS"
 -T 4022
 -T 4010
 -T 3659
 -T 3610
 -T 8015
 -T 902
2013-03-05 12:17:37.69 Server  SQL Server detected 1 sockets with 2 cores per socket and 4 logical processors per socket, 4 total logical processors; using 4 logical processors based on SQL Server licensing.  This is an informational message; no user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.69 Server  SQL Server is starting at normal priority base (=7). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.69 Server  Detected 6004 MB of RAM. This is an informational message; no user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:37.69 Server  Using conventional memory in the memory manager.  
2013-03-05 12:17:38.02 Server  Perfmon counters for resource governor pools and groups failed to initialize and are disabled.  
2013-03-05 12:17:38.73 Server  Node configuration: node 0: CPU mask: 0x000000000000000f:0 Active CPU mask: 0x000000000000000f:0. This message provides a description of the NUMA configuration for this computer. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:38.75 Server  Using dynamic lock allocation.  Initial allocation of 2500 Lock blocks and 5000 Lock Owner blocks per node.  This is an informational message only.  No user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:38.75 Server  Database Mirroring Transport is disabled in the endpoint configuration.  
2013-03-05 12:17:38.76 Server  Software Usage Metrics is disabled.  
2013-03-05 12:17:38.92 spid4s  Warning
 ******************  
2013-03-05 12:17:38.92 spid4s  SQL Server started in single-user mode. This an informational message only. No user action is required.
2013-03-05 12:17:39.07 spid4s  Starting up database 'master'.  
2013-03-05 12:17:39.66 Server  CLR version v4.0.30319 loaded.  
2013-03-05 12:17:40.35 spid4s  SQL Server Audit is starting the audits. This is an informational message. No user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:40.38 spid4s  SQL Server Audit has started the audits. This is an informational message.  No user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:41.33 spid4s  SQL Trace ID 1 was started by login "sa".  
2013-03-05 12:17:41.60 spid4s  Server name is 'E2E-LAPTOP'. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.  
2013-03-05 12:17:41.82 spid12s Password policy update was successful.  
2013-03-05 12:17:41.87 spid12s Error: 17190, Severity: 16, State: 1.  
2013-03-05 12:17:41.87 spid12s Initializing the FallBack certificate failed with error code: 1, state: 20, error number: 0.  
2013-03-05 12:17:41.87 spid12s Unable to initialize SSL encryption because a valid certificate could not be found, and it is not possible to create a self-signed certificate.  
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s Error: 17182, Severity: 16, State: 1.  
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s TDSSNIClient initialization failed with error 0x80092004, status code 0x80. Reason: Unable to initialize SSL support. Cannot find object or property.  
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s Error: 17182, Severity: 16, State: 1.  
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s TDSSNIClient initialization failed with error 0x80092004, status code 0x1. Reason: Initialization failed with an infrastructure error. Check for previous errors. Cannot find object or property.  
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s Error: 17826, Severity: 18, State: 3.  
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s Could not start the network library because of an internal error in the network library. To determine the cause, review the errors immediately preceding this one in the error log.  
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s Error: 17120, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2013-03-05 12:17:42.00 spid12s SQL Server could not spawn FRunCommunicationsManager thread. Check the SQL Server error log and the Windows event logs for information about possible related problems.

7th March 2013: I have now side stepped this problem by installing SQL Server on a shiny new Windows 8 laptop (using exactly the same procedure as I tried on the errant machine). When I have the energy I will come back and see if I can resolve this problem on my other machine. If I have any success I will update this post.

Answer 1

A colleague into a similar problem - with pretty much the same error log. Turned out the root cause was his attempt to install SQL server on a domain controller using a system account. If you MUST install SQL server on domain controller, let SQL server service run under a network account. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2032911

Answer 2

BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY

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THIS IS ONLY AN OPTION - AND GENERALLY A LAST RESORT - WEIGH THE CONSEQUENCES ON YOUR OWN

DO NOT TAKE THIS ADVICE AS THOUGH I HAVE SEEN YOUR REGISTRY AND KNOW THE EXACT STATE OF YOUR MACHINE

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In short, the very first error you're seeing:

2013-03-05 12:17:41.87 spid12s Error: 17190, Severity: 16, State: 1.

2013-03-05 12:17:41.87 spid12s Initializing the FallBack certificate failed with error code: 1, state: 20, error number: 0.

is surrounding issues with keys that already exist in your registry. So, do what I said first, backup your registry, and then delete the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server

and then try to reinstall Microsoft SQL Server 2012. If this doesn't work - you're probably going to need to backup your machine data and rebuild it.