Have a single standalone DB running under Win2k, I connect using the bequeath protocol. I get the above problem when trying to connect to my database.

My Initialisation parameter file (G:\ORACLE\ORA81\DATABASE\INITmydb.ORA) contains the following...
db_name = mydb
service_names = myse
instance_name = myin

My registry settings are
ORACLE_SID = myin
ORA_myin_PFILE = G:\ORACLE\ORA81\DATABASE\INITmydb.ORA
ORACLE_HOME = G:\ORACLE\ORA81
ORA_myin_AUTOSTART = TRUE

The only way I can get the database to open is to explicitly issue ....
STARTUP PFILE=G:\ORACLE\ORA81\DATABASE\INITmydb.ORA

Additionally I have recreated the service using ORADIM
ORADIM -new -sid myin -intpwd oracle -startmode a -pfile G:\ORACLE\ORA81\DATABASE\INITmydb.ORA

....but I still get ...
LRM-00109 could not open parameter file 'G:\ORACLE\ORA81\DATABASE\INITmyin.ORA'

Where on earth is it getting this parameter file spec "INITmyin.ORA" when having speced "INITmydb.ORA", I have run out of ideas. Would apprectiate some guidance.

Am also having shutdown problems whereby a shutdown immediate even fails, so have remedied this with a checkpoint followed by an abort, not sure if this could be related. For either problem the Bdump trace file does not help.

Gus