FIX: SQL Server Enterprise Manager unexpectedly quits when you modify a DTS package

When you modify an existing Data Transformation Services (DTS) package by using the DTS designer graphical user interface in Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Manager, an access violation may occur in Mmc.exe, and SQL Server Enterprise Manager may unexpectedly quit.

You may also notice a short stack dump file that is similar to the following in Dr. Watson log files or under a debugger: Note This problem occurs when you use a query as the source of the DTS package and the select list of the query contains one or more calculated columns.

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2000. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4.

When the select list of a query in the source of the DTS package contains calculated columns, the columns in the DTS designer graphical user interface are set to NULL. Therefore, an access violation occurs when the DTS package tries to access these columns.

Steps to reproduce the problem

1. Start SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
2. In the left pane, expand the node that corresponds to the instance of SQL Server that you want.
3. Click the Data Transformation Services node.
4. In the right pane, right-click Local Packages, and then click New Package.
5. In the DTS designer graphical user interface, select Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server as the source of the DTS package that connects to the pubs database.
6. In the DTS designer graphical user interface, select Text File (Destination) as the destination of the DTS package.
   
   Note Follow the instructions in the wizard to create the destination text file.
7. On the Task menu, click Transform Data Task, and then select SQL Server as the source and Text File as the destination.
8. In the DTS package, double-click Transform Data Task.
9. In the Transform Data Task Properties dialog box, click the Source tab, click to select SQL query, and then type or paste the following query in the box:
   Select au_lname from authors
10. Click the Destination tab.
11. In the Define Columns dialog box, click Populate from Source, and then click Execute.
12. On the Transformations tab, click Select All, and then click OK.
13. On the Package menu, click Execute.
14. Click OK, and then click Done.
15. In the DTS package, double-click Transform Data Task.
16. In the Transform Data Task Properties dialog box, click the Source tab, and then modify the existing query to the following query:
    Select len(au_lname) from authors
17. Click OK.
    
    Note As soon as you click OK, you receive the following error message:
    Invalid transformations detected. Verify and retry your transformations.
    Click OK to dismiss the error message.
18. In the Verifying Transformations dialog box, make sure that Remove invalid transformations is selected, and then click OK.
19. In the Transform Data Task Properties dialog box, click the Destination tab, and then click Define Columns.
20. In the Define Columns dialog box, click Populate from Source, and then click Execute.
21. In the Transform Data Task Properties dialog box, click the Destination tab, and then click Define Columns again.

The MS03-031 security update also fixes this problem. For more information about the MS03-031 security update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about software update terminology, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: