update problem – help

I am getting the following error when I publish a post:

WordPress database error: [Lost connection to MySQL server during query]
INSERT INTO wp_postmeta (post_id,meta_key,meta_value) VALUES ('30','_pingme','1')

The post is updated in the category, but is not updated in the monthly archive nor the index.php page. Obviously a database challenge, but not sure where to begin?? Thanks for all help!