The culprit is the compliance manager. According to Idera the only fix is to keep all error messages from the Windows Event Log. From Idera solutions:
Solution Number 00001798 Fixed In Version:
Created By Evan Rowlett, 2/8/2007 12:00 PM Last Modified By Frank Samstag, 4/27/2011 3:26 PM
Solution Title Many "Trace Started" and "Trace Stopped" Events from SQL Server are in the Windows Application Event Log of an audited SQL Server
Solution Details SOLUTION NUMBER: 00001798
SYMPTOMS:
On a SQL Server audited by SQL compliance manager, your windows Application event log shows many events for "SQL Trace Started" and "SQL Trace Stopped", with a source of the audited SQL instance.
CAUSE:
By default, SQL server error logging records an event in the Windows application log every time a trace is started or stopped.
RESOLUTION:
If you use the "-n" startup parameter, SQL Server error logging will not be performed to the event log. Be aware that this will also prevent the logging of other SQL server errors as events, including successful and failed backups. If you need to see this information, you can still find it in the SQL Server error log , located at "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\LOG" by default.
For more information, please see the Microsoft Books Online article on Startup Parameters:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190737.aspx
Please note that these steps do not prevent trace events from being recorded directly to the SQL error log. It is not possible to prevent SQL Server from adding these particular events to the log.
[EDIT]
Found there is a trace flag 3688. It needs a restart of the services so I will not be able to implement it until the weekend. Since the culprit software only is licensed on one computer I cannot test on our dev system. :angry:
I will try and let you know what happens.