"SMF Can Not Connect to Database"

[PatrickPriest]

I've been getting the "SMF can not connect to database" error a lot lately.  Even though the traffic has decreased on my site.

How can I prevent this?  Or at least make it better.

I assume if the actual server was overloaded, it wouldn't load anything.  So I figured it might be something I can fix within SMF.

[Yigal]

Try this!
I broke my forum! What tool should I try?.
If nothing in that article helped you, run repair_settings.php and make sure all of your paths are correct.
Click this link for further help:  What is repair_settings.php?

[kat]

That message means exactly what it says.

I'd suspect that your host's... er... rubbish.

[tumbleweed]

I've been getting the "SMF can not connect to database" error a lot lately.  Even though the traffic has decreased on my site.

How can I prevent this?  Or at least make it better.

I assume if the actual server was overloaded, it wouldn't load anything.  So I figured it might be something I can fix within SMF.

The MYSQL server is being hit to hard ran out of connections to many concurrent connections ect, And basically your site cannot connect into it. Other files such as html/php/ would work fine if MYSQL is not needed to run them. If you had been working on your site (moving ect) you would receive the same error for bad MYSQL settings. But since you said nothing about working on your site. I would say you the same as K@. Good luck with your provider