im a linux newbie and configured squid sometime back and it was runing perfectly but now its not working . i really dont know the cause of all the errors.

if i run the command #service squid status ,i get the error:
squid dead but subsys locked
squid: ERROR: Could not send signal 0 to process 2685: (3) No such process

if i run the command #service squid restart , i get the error:
Stopping /etc/squid/sbin/squid: squid: ERROR: Could not send signal 15 to process 4698: (3) No such process
..............................

please help urgently.