My forum is inaccessible HHHEEEEELLLLPP

[Eagle1]

I was on the forum a few minutes ago and everything was fine. I had setup a new usergroup and wanted to see if it was working so I logged out to create a test account. When I logged out I now get this message:

Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

My homepage is hosted on the same server and it works fine. What's wrong and how do i fix it? Please explain like I am an idiot cause when it comes to this stuff I am. Did I break it? How can I fix it ? My web address is www.amceaglenest.com [nofollow] please tell me how to fix it. 

[Tony Reid]

If you havent changed your DB settings then it really is a connection problem with the MySQL database server.

Your host might be restarting it for some reason.... if it doesnt come back in five minutes - open a ticket on their help desk.

[Eagle1]

well it has been a little over an hour. I have already started a help desk ticket but they should be restarting as there is noone there at night. I use a local company and they close at 5pm est. How do i even check my db setting through a mysql editor or through my hosts control panel? Also what do I look for I am not the one that set it up?

[[Unknown]]

What is phpMyAdmin?

-[Unknown]

[Eagle1]

The only thing I have ever done with the database was changged the password after our host reported unusual activity. Could this have caused the problem? I did that tonight I don't know what the original password was for the database cause the guy that setup the database set that also i guess but didn't need to know to change it with my host. If this could have caused it where do i fix it in the database with the new password?

[[Unknown]]

The only thing I have ever done with the database was changged the password after our host reported unusual activity. Could this have caused the problem? I did that tonight I don't know what the original password was for the database cause the guy that setup the database set that also i guess but didn't need to know to change it with my host. If this could have caused it where do i fix it in the database with the new password?

Umm, yes.  The forum uses that password to log into the database itself, so if you changed the password you have to tell SMF.  It doesn't get a free ticket into your database.

What is repair_settings.php?

-[Unknown]

[Eagle1]

Thanks for the quick assistance!! My forum is back up but now I have to figure out what is wrong with my template. If I set the Default Theme Directory: back to my theme the forum loads as a plain white page if I set it to default it diplays my theme but with errors. Any suggestions?