ORA-1033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress I am stuck with a little Oracle problem. My PC was shut down improperly after my graphics card freaked out, which caused Oracle 11g Express to not properly close down. This means that I get the above error when I try to connect. My PC has been on for 3 hours, and I still get the error, so it is safe to assume that there's something wrong.

The usual way of remedying the problem is to use the following sequence of commands from the command line:

sqlplus /nolog
SQL&gt; connect / as sysdba
SQL&gt; shutdown abort
SQL&gt; startup nomount
SQL&gt; alter database mount;
SQL&gt; alter database open;


However, when I give the shutdown command, I get the error


  ORA-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error


So now, I can't mount my db. ANy help would be appreciated.
For your database to open and mount, first ensure that you are logged in as the user oracle
Then start by checking whether your listener has been started, using the command
lsnrctl status

Also, please provide the details of the environment in which you are running Oracle, i.e as an active/standby in dataguard, or standalone, and also what version of Oracle you are using. Also check your alertlog /opt/oracle/admin/databasename/bdump/alert_databasename.log if there are any clues here.