You're not alone, I've seen this happen a few times in our application too, 1 or 2 years ago. Then it suddenly stopped after updating to a newer build or version?
Someone else also reported this bug, though it wasn't resolved. See: https://www.appeon.com/standardsupport/search/view?id=3226 

It's a shot in the dark, but the weird thing is that it only seems to happen to two of the many users?
Can you check if they're using (finding) the correct runtime dlls when running powerbuilder and compare it with other users who don't have the problem? Maybe they're finding an old version of dlls due to path settings or incorrect runtime install.

If you manage to be able to 'always' reproduce it on a user's computer, try to see if the problem goes away if you switch between 'traditional' and 'contemporary' menu styles.

regards,

Hi Thomas;

  Since the PB Menu Object does not support "Dynamic" menu items, I am assuming that your using some home grown code to build the "menu items" on-the-fly. Invalid characters could be coming from that aspect or even newer DBMS Client drivers or character set handling as suggested by others here already. In order to satisfy your question, you may need to review your approach in light of changing Unicode handling aspects of PB and/or O/S vs your home grown (I assume) code.

Food for thought.

Regards ... Chris

Thanks for the replies.  David, here are answers to your questions:

1. Windows 10 Enterprise, version 1909, OS build 18363.1256
2. No but only two users have reported the issue so far (out of a pool of thousands)
3. The data does not change often and the source is small table in a SQL Server 2016 database

The garbled menu text look similar to how ANSI or UTF-8 data appears in PB if not converted to Unicode-16LE. I can't say with any certainty that is what is happening here, however, or speculate why it would occur only intermittently.

Hi Tom

Not seen anthing like that for a long while. Here's some questions:

1. What operating environment is the user that report the problem running.

2. Is it always the same user?

3. Does the data in the DB change often and what is it's source?

Here are some random thoughts on what might be causing the probelm:

1. SQL Server client setup on the client PC, other environmental influences on language.

2. I've see this sort of thing in a Citrix environment, random elements not displayed correctly - But not for over 10 years.

3. Unicode data issue relating to the source of the data?

Hope these help in some small way.

Regards

David