I'd check the number of rows transefered between the 2 servers. One might have only a few k and the other 10M rows...

Well at this point I think the only simple change that could help you would be to add an index on the dateClosed column. The deleted flag will always...

I haven't found anything usefull... This is a relatively basic select statement. The only difference is that you use 3 parts naming instead of 2 (owner + object).

Select col1 from DBName.owner.TableName inner join...

IS there an index on the columns dateClosed and deleted?

What datatype is the deleted column?

Please post all the relevant table definition, some sample data and the expected results from the update statement. I'm sure we can optimize this.

SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT ON

GO

Select * from dbo.SysObjects

GO

SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT OFF

Is there any known fix?

change this a derived table an use it in a inner join :

(SELECT [tbl_Cycle].[cycleName]

...

What does "gpf" means?

One of the lasting legacies of that sitcom .

Yup, sorry boss but some parts of the server hav failled... we need to resubmit a whole new server .

As long as you don't use the hammer for the screws of the server ...

Still that guessing game... do you think he understood what you meant or does he still need help?

Waiting myself to see one ...