Cannot access Sharepoint Central Administration - Cannot open database "SharePoint_AdminContent_30523b30-497d-4007-94ac-11ef3534419b" requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user

shouldnt matter.  to test, you could script it and use variables, make sure you run on your Central Admin server.....

set s="%commonprogramfiles%\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin\stsadm.exe"
set user="domain\account"
set Pass="password"

%s% -o updatefarmcredentials -identitytype configurableid -userlogin %user% -password %password%

Still doesnt work....even tried a newly created domain admin by copying the administrator account that's typically used for the Sharepoint administration. All i get is access denied with the new user and I get Login Failed with the old user.

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin Domain\Administrator -password password

Cannot open database "SharePoint_AdminContent_30523b30-497d-4007-94ac-11ef3534419b" requested by the login. The login failed.Login failed for user 'Domain\Administrator'.

I should say that I can easily access the database from the SQL Management Console using the Administrator login

are you logged into the box as a farm admin?

the logged in account must also be an admin on the server.

also, are you getting the login failed button right after you run the stsadm command?  or is the command completing successfully?

I'm logged in as the farm admin and the command fails immediately...I also logged in as the newly created full access user and I also get the Login Failed.

In the event logs I can see where my DOMAIN\Administrator is getting a login failed error for the SQL server:

Event Type:      Failure Audit
Event Source:      MSSQLSERVER
Event Category:      (4)
Event ID:      18456
Date:            9/9/2010
Time:            12:42:05 PM
User:            DOMAIN\administrator
Computer:      SPSERVER
Description:
Login failed for user 'DOMAIN\Administrator'. [CLIENT: <local machine>]

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 18 48 00 00 0e 00 00 00   .H......
0008: 07 00 00 00 57 00 52 00   ....S.P.
0010: 49 00 47 00 48 00 54 00   S.E.R.V.
0018: 00 00 07 00 00 00 6d 00   ......m.
0020: 61 00 73 00 74 00 65 00   a.s.t.e.
0028: 72 00 00 00               r...    

was domain\admin the previous account used?  does it run the Windows SharePoint Timer Service right now?

also, being a farm admin doesn't mean you're a local admin on the server.  the account you are running this command with needs to be a local admin and a farm admin.

Yes. This is a Small Company and they have a single domain controller running WSS. I am logged in as DOMAIN\Administrator which was the original user configured to access the Sharepoint Admin. This domain administrator is the Enterprise admin...see the group memberships below.
Screen-shot-2010-09-09-at-12.54..png

I've discovered that when you are not logged in as the user when running the command you get "Access Denied" as opposed to "Cannot open database "SharePoint_AdminContent_30523b30-497d-4007-94ac-11ef3534419b" requested by the login. The login failed.Login failed for user 'Domain\Administrator'."

you will get access denied if the account you are logged in as is not a local admin and farm admin.

it soudns to me as if the password is being mistyped or it's not being accepted.  can you just reset the password temporarily to something simple just to test?

Ok...well, I got the command to run by adding the "-local" to the end of it but it still will not authenticate/find the Sharepoint_Admincontent_... database:

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category:      Database
Event ID:      3760
Date:            9/9/2010
Time:            12:59:53 PM
User:            N/A
Computer:      SPSERVER
Description:
SQL Database 'SharePoint_AdminContent_30523b30-497d-4007-94ac-11ef3534419b' on SQL Server instance 'spserver' not found. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.

Cannot open database "SharePoint_AdminContent_30523b30-497d-4007-94ac-11ef3534419b" requested by the login. The login failed.
Login failed for user 'DOMAIN\Administrator'.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

if you add -local at the end, it won't update the config db....bad.

can you verify in sql that the domain\administrator has rights to the database?  i dont see why it wouldnt if it was the previous account....but just double checkign.

In the SQL manager there is a user called "dbo" whose "Login Name" is DOMAIN\Administrator and it's the "db_owner"

strange.  i would reset the password to something easy just to test.

you might also try to delete the update farm credentials timer job from the job definitions page.  then try running again.

take a look towards the bottom of this page:  http://www.wijix.com/post/Updating-SharePoint-Farm-Credentials-(Associated-to-Error-Code-997).aspx

Changed it to something much simpler and I'm still getting login failed.

Here's an additional error logged after the IIS restart and the restart of the SQL service:

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category:      Database
Event ID:      5586
Date:            9/9/2010
Time:            1:38:39 PM
User:            N/A
Computer:      WRIGHT
Description:
Unknown SQL Exception 233 occured. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.

A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server. (provider: Shared Memory Provider, error: 0 - No process is on the other end of the pipe.)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Tried setting it back to the old password to no avail. Can still only make the change with the -local switch

Even the configuration wizard runs successfully.

One suggestion if I may: try checking the identity that is running the SQL service on the SQL box.
I saw something similar when the account running the SQL service was started with an identity of an expired account.

Good idea but same result. It was running under the local system and I switched it to the main admin user...makes no sense unless there's somewhere I'm missing that the password needs to be edited. Still says it can't find the database and the login failed.

Solution was found on my own accord.