XML errors when running specific reports in SCCM 2012, using SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services

Question

I've posted this to the SCCM 2012 forum and only received one response so far that states that this is a known issue that has been discussed before and isn't easy to fix;  I was not given any actual solution either.  Since this involves SSRS I thought I would try my luck here as well.  

I'm having almost exactly the same problem as is referenced in this article:  http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/uk/sqlreportingservices/thread/587a3319-bc54-4d30-bb3f-bb90a0c6ec50.  When I try to run either of these reports (Computers with specific software registered in Add Remove Programs; Count of instances of specific software registered with Add or Remove Programs) I receive the XML error shown in the attached screenshot.  I'm fairly sure the problem is the same as the other admin was experiencing and I just need to remove the unprintable characters (of the application name) from the dbo.v_Add_Remove_Program column.    

The error references 0xFFFF but I could not find what that exactly translates too, other than it appears to be at the end of the spectrum for Unicode characters.  I used the following sql query to search for the 0xFFFF entry, but no results were found:

 

use CM_UV2
Select distinct
 CHARINDEX(cast(0xFFFF as varchar(1)),DisplayName0),
 DisplayName0
from
 dbo.v_Add_Remove_Programs
Where
 CHARINDEX(cast(0xFFFF as varchar(1)),DisplayName0) > 0

When I used the original hex value of 0x28 I get plenty of results returned with "(" in them so the query seems sound.  One of the articles I was searching mentioned running the query manually using the Management Studio and looking for strange characters there but I'm not sure how to do that. 

Basically I just need help finding the offending character and removing it.  I also need to be able to replicate this for other strings as this looks like an error that will reoccur whenever any new software appears that has weird encoding in the title.  Thank you in advance for any help given.

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Über Random

Answer 1

Hi Uber,

This is a known issue that error occurs when running report "Count of instances of specific software registered with Add or Remove Programs" due to non-printable characters for XML. Based on internal research, the hotfix for this issue will be included in the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1.

As a workaround, you can remove the nonprintable character populated into the report parameter by referring to the following KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/914159

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Mike Yin

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Mike Yin

TechNet Community Support

Answer 2

Hello i have a same error with sccm 2012 SP1 CU4. Can anybody help me?