We are experiencing a bizarre error with our application at a customer site. We have managed to narrow it down to the point where we can replicate the behaviour using just Management Studio and SQL Server.

We have two machines, A and B:

+------------+                   +--------------------+
|    [A]     |                   |        [B]         |
| Management |  -------------->  | SQL Server 2008 R2 |
|   Studio   |                   |   Enterprise x64   |
+------------+                   +--------------------+

We are running a SQL script in Management Studio on machine A against the SQL Server instance on machine B. We are not actually executing the script, just parsing it.

Most of the time, the parse operation works fine. Occasionally (seemingly randomly), the parse operation fails with a syntax error. The error message shows the part of the script with the error, which appears as some SQL from the original script that has been truncated and has random characters appended to it.

An example:

The original SQL:

SELECT DISTINCT ST.TABLE_NAME as TableName
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES AS ST
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS SC
ON SC.TABLE_NAME = ST.TABLE_NAME
WHERE ST.TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
AND SC.COLUMN_NAME = 'Identity'
AND ST.TABLE_NAME != 'dtproperties'
ORDER BY ST.TABLE_NAME

The SQL that is in error (as reported by SQL Server):

SELECT DISTINCT ST.TABLE_NAME as TableName
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES AS ST
INNER JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS AS SC
ON SC.TABLE_NAME = Sa?

The above example shows how the query is being corrupted. It doesn't always happen, and is not always the same bit of SQL that causes the error. Parsing this script against another SQL Server instance produces no errors, showing that the script is fine.

It appears that something is corrupting the SQL that is being received the the server. This leads me to think that the problem lies either with the client end or in the transmission of the SQL from the client to the server. I have a SQL trace from the period where an error occurs, which shows the SQL has been corrupted when SQL Server receives it.

We have been unable to track down any possible cause of this behaviour, and so cannot find a fix. Because the errors occur seemingly randomly, it is also very hard to generate reproduction steps to submit a bug report.

Any ideas?