[dba-SQLServer] SQL Server 2005 unresponsive

I am looking for a little information about an issue I have with my SQL Server 2005 instance which 
becomes unresponsive when a long running job from Access occurs.

I have a set of stored procedures that builds a table, imports 2 million record files into an import 
table, appends that to the main table, then when all the 2 million record files are imported, starts 
building up indexes.  Something is happening (one of these index builds I suspect) that causes 
Access to "go away" and when this happens SQL Server "goes away" as well.

Access goes "not responding" which makes sense given the single threading nature of VBA, however the 
server goes unresponsive as well.  In fact I tried to get the database properties for the database 
being worked in and got a blue screen.  I cannot prove that the blue screen was caused by SQL Server 
but... that was the last thing I did before the blue screen.

So fine, I opened another instance of management studio so that I could go build an index in a 
completely different db / table.  That instance of Management studio took a looooooonnnnnggggg time 
even opening.  Expanding the database normally is instantaneous.  ATM it takes many seconds. 
Likewise expanding the tables, etc.  Each step which normally "just happens" takes a much longer time.

Is this normal behavior?  The server is a quad core (AMD) with 16 gigs of ram, with 12 gigs assigned 
to SQL Server.  I would have thought that SQL Server would allow multiple things to occur quickly.

-- 
John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com