Problem With Listener Service: Long Delay Starting Listener, Intermittent Connections

Question

I am having trouble connecting to my Oracle database.  I'm not sure what the cause was, but now when I connect to a database that has been working fine for the past two years, I usually get a ORA-12541 error.
I run lsnrctl status on the server and get a prinout like this:
Copyright (c) 1991, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=dqaswn02)(PORT=1521)))
TNS-12541: TNS:no listener
TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error
  TNS-00511: No listener
   64-bit Windows Error: 61: Unknown error
Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1521)))
TNS-12541: TNS:no listener
TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error
  TNS-00511: No listener
   64-bit Windows Error: 2: No such file or directory
I've also tried manually stopping the service via services.msc and then restarting via lsnrctl start, but when I do this I get a really long delay (10+ minutes) before it returns with something like:
TNS-01153: Failed to process string: 0í≈♥
I'm pretty lost as to what is wrong.  I've been messing around with listener.ora, but I don't see anything problematic in there.  Here's a copy:
# listener.ora Network Configuration File: E:\app\myc0714\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\NETWORK\ADMIN\listener.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.
SID_LIST_LISTENER =
  (SID_LIST =
    (SID_DESC =
      (SID_NAME = CLRExtProc)
      (ORACLE_HOME = E:\app\myc0714\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1)
      (PROGRAM = extproc)
      (ENVS = "EXTPROC_DLLS=ONLY:E:\app\myc0714\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\BIN\OraClr11.dll")
LISTENER =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = dqaswn02)(PORT = 1521))
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
# ADR_BASE_LISTENER = E:\app\myc0714
LOG_FILE_LISTENER = LISTENER
TRACE_LEVEL_LISTENER = SUPPORT
TRACE_FILE_LISTENER = LISTENER
However, a few times during this I've been able to connect to the server, via sqlplus, but it has taken 10 minutes before the connection comes online.  Once I'm connected, I can query my tables as expected, but I need an application to connect.
If anyone has any ideas on what could be wrong, please let me know.

Answer 1

When I opened up netca, I didn't have any listeners configured, which seems very strange.  When adding it, I get this message in the cmd window:
Oracle Net Services Configuration:
Configuring Listener:LISTENER
ServiceAliasException: Could not save Service Alias: TNS-04406: Object already e
xists
Default local naming configuration complete.
Listener configuration complete.
Oracle Net Listener Startup:
    Running Listener Control:
      E:\app\myc0714\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\bin\lsnrctl start LISTENER
    Listener Control complete.
    Listener start failed.
I killed the service via services.msc again and tried starting the lsnrctl.  This time I've got a new listening service going:
Starting tnslsnr: please wait...
TNSLSNR for 64-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
System parameter file is E:\app\myc0714\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\network\admin\li
stener.ora
Log messages written to e:\app\myc0714\diag\tnslsnr\DQASWN02\listener\alert\log.
xml
Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=DQASWN02.petroleumplace.
com)(PORT=1521)))
Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1521
ipc)))
Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=DQASWN02.petroleumplace.
com)(PORT=1521)))
TNS-01153: Failed to process string: X☺∙♥
I just tried starting the trace.  I'm waiting for it to connect, I guess.  I'll post anything I get out of it when it returns.