nopCommerce 1.90 database constantly timing out

My website is using nopCommerce 1.9 and recently my database has been timing out constantly especially when clicking on a product.  I contacted softsys hosting and they sent me a reply indicating that I might have something writing to the database and not closing the write out.  I can't imagine what would randomly start doing that as I haven't started using anything lately that accesses the database and might not be closing writes.  Is there any easy way to force some kind of sync periodically while I figure out what is causing this problem?  I'm not a SQL Server guru and the hosting service hasn't been super helpful but I know I'm losing sales and I'm really starting to get worried here.  I'd really appreciate any help or suggestions provided.

The error is:
Server Error in '/' Application.

Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:


[SqlException (0x80131904): Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.]
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) +2073502
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) +5064460
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning() +234
   System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) +2275
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.ConsumeMetaData() +33
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_MetaData() +86
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString) +311
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async) +987
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result) +162
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method) +32
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior, String method) +141
   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteDbDataReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +12
   System.Data.Common.DbCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior) +10
   System.Data.EntityClient.EntityCommandDefinition.ExecuteStoreCommands(EntityCommand entityCommand, CommandBehavior behavior) +443


Thanks!

try the following to raise the time out period.

You can raise the timeout period on the command by setting the SqlCommand.CommandTimeout property.

make the connection string with connect timeout property

server={servername};database={dbname};uid={username};pwd={password};Connect Timeout=600