Object Explorer throwing "Internal connection fatal error"

Question

I have a user who is having issues expanding the Tables in SSMS when connecting to a given SQL Server 2008 R2 server (10.50.1617).  User has SQL 2008 R2 toolset, and can connect to same database on different server just fine, just not this particular one.  When user expands table, object explorer throws error below.  I suspect this is a client-side issue, so any suggestions on what to explore first would be great.

 

TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
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Internal connection fatal error. (System.Data)

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BUTTONS:

OK

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.XPathException: syntax error ()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.XPathHandler.Run(XPathScanner scanner)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.XPathExpression.Compile(String strXPathExpression)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.UrnImpl.get_XPathExpression()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc.Urn.get_Type()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItem.IsPolicyHealthStateSupportedOnNodes()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItem.get_IsPolicyHealthStateSupported()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItem.get_State()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.LazyTreeView.AdjustStateHealthStatus(TreeNode inputNode)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.LazyTreeView.AddIconToImageMap(TreeNode node)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.ExplorerHierarchyNode.LoadNodeValuesFromItem(INavigableItem containedItem)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.ExplorerHierarchyNode.AddedToTree()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.LazyTreeView.AddNodesInternal(TreeNode source, TreeNode[] nodesToAdd)

Answer 1

I have seen issues similar to this if the client machine's binaries are not all from the same build.  In my case, the client machine had SQL 2008 tools, but SQL 2008 R2 BIDS.  I fixed it by updating all the tools to 2008 R2.

HTH.