I have also seen this issue and have not yet found a permanent fix for it. I did see something from Microsoft about this error but that deals with Host Integration Server 2004. That may be what is causing my issue even though my link server is another SQL Server. The original source of the data is coming from DB2. I am wondering if that somehow the error carries through....

I did seem to find a way to can get around the error. For the column with the issue, CONVERT it to something. In my case, with my column EmployeeType, I changed it to CONVERT(VARCHAR,EmployeeType) as [EmployeeType]. This allows me to get the data back as long as it is not used as part of the WHERE statements.

In case your issue is related to HIS2004, here is the link from Microsoft:

support.microsoft.com/kb/897246

Hope this helps!

Chad