Microsoft KB Archive/158486

= FIX: Error 701/Server Unresponsive on Cursor Queries w/UPDATE =

Article ID: 158486

Article Last Modified on 10/16/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q158486



BUG #: 15553 (Windows NT: 6.0) 15624 (6.5)



SYMPTOMS
When you run cursor queries that do an UPDATE using the WHERE CURRENT OF clause, the server runs out of memory, even though the cursors are closed properly. This leads to the following error message (701):

There is insufficient system memory to run this query.

After that, the server becomes very slow for normal connections.



CAUSE
Cursor operations that do an UPDATE using the WHERE CURRENT OF cause a memory leak. One page of memory allocated on each call is not reclaimed until the connection is dropped.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, do either of the following:


 * Avoid using the UPDATE WHERE CURRENT OF clause. Instead, you can use "positioned" updates (calling sp_cursor or using SQLSetPos in ODBC).

-or-
 * Identify and close the connection that caused the error 701 message. Normally, the client connection that caused this problem runs into the error 701, and can be identified easily. When this connection is closed, everything returns to normal.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft SQL Server versions 6.0 and 6.5. This problem has been corrected in U.S. Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5. For more information, contact your primary support provider.



MORE INFORMATION
The server eventually comes to a very slow, unusable state from which it must be recycled.

The following is additional information for SQL Server version 6.5:

If SQLTrace is running, no new connections to the server are possible.

The following is additional information for SQL Server version 6.0:

The error 701 sometimes leads to a handled access violation (AV).

Additional query words: cursors memory leak av

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbprogramming KB158486

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