query problem "server sent binary data ... without prior row desc ription ..."

I'm having a problem with postgres on HPUX. My version is:

VERSION = 'PostgreSQL 7.2.2 on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11,
compiled by aCC -Ae'

I'm trying to do a query and it consistently gives the
following errors:

wily=# \a
Output format is unaligned.
wily=# \f ';'
Field separator is ';'.
wily=# \t
Showing only tuples.

wily=# select * from wt_metric_backup where intended_end_ts
< '2002-08-16 00:00:00.000-7';

the query runs for 10 minutes or so, then outputs:

server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row
description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row
description ("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row
description ("T" message)
unexpected character n following empty query response ("I"
message)
server sent data ("D" message) without prior row description
("T" message)
server sent data ("D" message) without prior row description
("T" message)
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row
description ("T" message)

then it prompts me for some input:

Enter data to be copied followed by a newline.
End with a backslash and a period on a line by itself.
>> \.
server sent binary data ("B" message) without prior row
description ("T" message)
unexpected response from server; first received character
was "0"
lost synchronization with server, resetting connection
Asynchronous NOTIFY 'ntsTask|perform:Response Time (mccoust
r@ <mailto:r@> ' from backend with pid 1667460981 received.

I've tried this several times. After I got the error the
first time I ran a vacuum analysis on the table and added an index on the
query field (wt_metric_backup.intended_end_ts) but I get the same results.
The error log doesn't show anything unusual until after I kill the query.

Looks like it's losing packets/messages (server sent binary
data ("B" message) without prior row description ("T" message)), but the
errors are consistent between attempts - I would expect packet loss to be
random. Simpler queries such as:

select min(intended_end_ts) from wt_metric_backup;

work okay.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Bill Jones
Systems Architect
Middleware Services
Wells Fargo Services Company
Office --415.222.5226
PCS -- 415.254.3831 (4152543831(at)mobile(dot)att(dot)net)

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