ERROR: piece-wise fetching

With Oracle 8.04 underNT 4.0 I get the following when I issue this statement;
select * from user_tab_columns -- as both sys and non sys users.

I get this error message on several other tables as well, all with LONG columns
in them.

This happens only with long columns, if I select everything else but the long
column I do not get the error. AND -- only system views/tables with the

long fields in them, specifically sys.col$.

Anyone have any insight into this?

TIA Kevin

  1* select * from user_tab_columns

             Table             Column                Data
          Name               Name                 Type              D
------------------------- ---------- ------------------------------ -
ADMIN                     ADMIN_ID   VARCHAR2
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     RECORD_ID  NUMBER
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     ADMIN_GROU VARCHAR2
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     ADMIN_DESC VARCHAR2
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     ADMIN_SEQ  NUMBER
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     STRING1    VARCHAR2
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     STRING2    VARCHAR2
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     NUMBER1    NUMBER
ERROR: piece-wise fetching
ADMIN                     NUMBER2    NUMBER