MSSQL Paging is returning random rows when not supposed too

Question

I'm trying to do some basic paging in MSSQL. The problem I'm having is that I'm sorting the paging on a row that (potentially) has similar values, and the ORDER BY clause is returning "random" results, which doesn't work well.

So for example.

If I have three rows, and I'm sorting them by a "rating", and all of the ratings are = '5' - the rows will seemingly "randomly" order themselves. How do I make it so the rows are showing up in the same order everytime?

I tried ordering it by a datetime that the field was last edited, but the "rating" is sorted in reverse, and again, does not work how i expect it to work.

Here is the SQL I'm using thus far. I know it's sort of confusing without the data so.. any help would be greatful.

SELECT * FROM 
(
  SELECT 
    CAST(grg.defaultthumbid AS VARCHAR) + '_' + 
    CAST(grg.garageid AS VARCHAR) AS imagename,
    (
      SELECT COUNT(imageid) 
      FROM dbo.images im (nolock) 
      WHERE im.garageid = grg.garageid
    ) AS piccount, 
    (
      SELECT COUNT(commentid) 
      FROM dbo.comments cmt (nolock) 
      WHERE cmt.garageid = grg.garageid
    ) AS commentcount,
    grg.GarageID, mk.make, mdl.model, grg.year, 
    typ.type, usr.username, grg.content, 
    grg.rating, grg.DateEdit as DateEdit,
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Rating DESC) As RowIndex 
  FROM 
    dbo.garage grg (nolock)
    LEFT JOIN dbo.users (nolock) AS usr ON (grg.userid = usr.userid)
    LEFT JOIN dbo.make (nolock) AS mk ON (grg.makeid = mk.makeid)
    LEFT JOIN dbo.type (nolock) AS typ ON (typ.typeid = mk.typeid)
    LEFT JOIN dbo.model (nolock) AS mdl ON (grg.modelid = mdl.modelid)
  WHERE 
    typ.type = 'Automobile' AND
    grg.defaultthumbid != 0 AND
    usr.username IS NOT NULL
) As QueryResults 
WHERE 
  RowIndex BETWEEN (2 - 1) * 25 + 2 AND 2 * 25
ORDER BY 
  DateEdit DESC

Answer 1

Try ordering by both, e.g.: ORDER BY Rating DESC, DateEdit ASC

Answer 2

The query first numbers the rows by [Rating], and then re-sorts the results by [DateEdit]. Possibly not what you intended. Ordering by [RowIndex] ASC should sort it out.

ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY [Rating] DESC) As [RowIndex]
...
ORDER BY [RowIndex]