Items probably aren't loading because you aren't running a revision of the source code that is compatible with the revision of the database you are running. If you have Rev1549 Database, you need to use Rev1549 source code or later and update any required SQL updates since that revision to meet the source code revision you use. I assume the source code you are using is earlier than Rev 1542, which is when the items table was changed a bit, which would cause your items to fail to load due to mismatches in your items table schema.
I would guess you are probably running the precomiled binaries from the download page here:
http://code.google.com/p/projecteqemu/downloads/list
Since that is Rev 1535, it won't work right with a Rev 1549 DB due to the change in Rev 1542 to the items table. You will either need to use an older DB revision or compile your own source code for 1549 or later.
As for quests not working, that is probably either because you don't have your quests in the server/quests folder or you have them inside server/quests/quests/ by mistake. Another possibility is that you might have forgotten to move the plugins folder from the quests folder into the server folder so plugins can load. Without plugins, some quests will work and some won't.
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