Question : ArcSDE oracle initialization or shutdown in process

i am trying to connect to oracle spatial through arccatalog,
every time i create a NEW sde database connection to connect to oracle spatial i get error Ora-01003 oracle shutdown or initialization in process!!
Some times i get error that number of process exceded ...

however i CAN CONNECT using sde connection that has been already created... but if i create new one i get this error

other users do not get this error, it is only on my machine..
pl help i am getting this many times

would there be any problem with installation etc.. ?
thanks

Answer : ArcSDE oracle initialization or shutdown in process

A host language program call referenced a cursor with no associated parsed SQL statement. A SQL call (for example, OSQL3) must be used to pass a SQL statement to Oracle and to associate the statement with an open cursor. A cursor must already have an associated SQL statement if referenced in any of the following calls: DESCRIBE, NAME, DEFINE, BIND, EXECUTE, and FETCH.

Do the SQL call, for example, OSQL, to pass the required SQL statement before referencing the cursor.

The Oracle 10.2.0.1 client is your problem, find out what your
 ArcSDE on this box isn't patched to
anything recent, either. Make sure your client and database are the same.