BUG: When You Open Table with a Large Number of Columns SEM Appears to Hang or Reports Unknown Error (268600)

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to open a table with a large number of columns in SQL Server Enterprise Manager (SEM), SEM stops responding (hangs).

There are several workarounds to this problem:

Use SQL Query Analyzer to view the data and alter the columns in the table.
Use the stored procedure sp_help to locate the structure of the table, assuming that the test table exists in the pubs database. Use the following code:
```
Use pubs
go
sp_help test
					
```
If you need to modify the table, use the ALTER TABLE statement. See SQL Server books online for complete syntax for the ALTER TABLE topic.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 7.0. This behavior has been fixed in SQL 2000, which returns the output as expected.

Expand Databases in SQL Server Enterprise Manager, and then click Tables.
In the right pane, right-click the table that has a large number of columns from the list of tables in that specific database.
Click Open Table, and then click Return All Rows.

Note that after about five minutes, the following error message appears:

Running out of virtual memory.

The following error message might also appear after ten to twenty minutes:

Unknown error.

However, opening and altering the table in SQL Server Enterprise Manager does eventually work.