# How to best deal with "Unspecified Error" happening (seemingly) randomly

**URL:** <https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/how-to-best-deal-with-unspecified-error-happening-seemingly-randomly/4586>\
**Category:** Discussion\
**Created:** [October 3, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/how-to-best-deal-with-unspecified-error-happening-seemingly-randomly/4586 "2014-10-03T03:34:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jonathanmeltzer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@jonathanmeltzer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/jonathanmeltzer)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/how-to-best-deal-with-unspecified-error-happening-seemingly-randomly/4586/1 "2014-10-03T03:34:48Z")

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I have a project that runs an MSSQL Execute action repeatedly as part of an iterated process. &nbsp;Most nights the process runs fine. &nbsp;Last night it failed on the 170th iterations, after 169 successes. &nbsp;The UPDATE statement that it was running was functionally no different from the previous 169, but on this one I got the following error in the log:  
  
Executing Query: UPDATE crd\_initiative SET hours\_used = 5173.5 where initiative\_id = 1000021&nbsp;

  

**Sqlcmd: Error: Internal error at ExecuteSqlCmd (Reason: Unspecified error).**  

  

**Execute failed, return code: 1**  

  
Is there any way to test for this, or keep it from happening? &nbsp;Should I set up retries on the Execute action? &nbsp;It seems very random, but it stops the whole process when it occurs. &nbsp;I don’t want to just “Ignore Failure”, because if one of the statements DOES fail I want to know about it.  
  
Thanks,  
  
Jonathan

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**Author:** ![Vincent](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/user_avatar/www.finalbuilder.com/vincent/32/938_2.png) [@Vincent](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/Vincent)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/how-to-best-deal-with-unspecified-error-happening-seemingly-randomly/4586/2 "2014-10-06T02:36:37Z")

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Hi Jonathan   
  
 This sounds very much like this issue : [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2121407/](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2121407/)   
  
 I’m not sure if retries would resolve this issue or not. I would try updating to the latests sqlcmd first and see if that resolves it.

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**Author:** ![jonathanmeltzer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@jonathanmeltzer](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/u/jonathanmeltzer)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 8:21am UTC](https://www.finalbuilder.com/forums/t/how-to-best-deal-with-unspecified-error-happening-seemingly-randomly/4586/3 "2014-10-09T08:21:27Z")

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There were several updates that had been downloaded by Windows Update but not yet installed, many of which had to do with SQL Server.  
  
I have now installed all of the updates, so hopefully this will go away. &nbsp;I think you are right about what was causing the error. &nbsp;If it happens again I will update this thread.  
  
Thank you for the heads-up!  
  
Thanks,  
  
Jonathan