Interop exception with VC++ and MySQL C++ Connector - c++

Question

I am helping a friend with his bachelor thesis project. It is a program that calculates bending moments for various materials. One of the extra requirements that the client desires is database functionality to store and retrieve various pieces of data being used in the program.
The program is a forms application written in managed C++. I jumped on board to help with writing the database functionality. I am using MySQL Server 5.5 and the MySQL Connector/C++ to bridge the program and the database. Everything has been going pretty well and all the functionality we need works just fine, but only in debug. As soon as we put the program into release mode there is undefined behavior occurring at runtime. Below is the function that is used to open a connection to the database:
try
{
m_driver = get_driver_instance();
m_conn = m_driver->connect(m_dbHost, m_dbUser, m_dbPwd);
m_conn->setSchema(m_dbSchema);
}
catch(sql::SQLException &e)
{
int a = e.getErrorCode();
MessageBoxA(NULL, e.what(), "DB Error", MB_OK);
}
The values passed into the connect function are all std::string. In debug mode the connection is made with no issues. In release mode an exception is caught after the connect function is called, and displays the message "Unknown MySQL Server Host '####' (0)" where the #### is always some garbage text. I also notice that in the output window another exception is being thrown, this one is the type System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException.
I have been doing some research and have seen numerous cases of this exception on many forums (and here on stack exchange) but no one seems to be having this issue with the MySQL connector. My assumption is that the memory is being corrupted because the program is mixed mode, with the main program code being written in Managed C++ and my database helper code being in native C++ (as required by the connector).
Is there something I can change in my code to try and fix this issue to that the strings aren't being corrupted at run time. I have tried many different hacks to try and solve the problem but nothing has worked.
Thanks,
Tom
Update: I am now seeing this error in debug mode. I added code to retrieve values from the database and populate some text boxes on the form. The code is as follows:
// Populate the form with material details
String^ selectedMaterial = (String^)(comboBox1->SelectedItem);
string selectedMaterial_ = "";
MarshalString(selectedMaterial, selectedMaterial_);
sql::ResultSet* results = dbHelper.GetData("matname", selectedMaterial_);
if (results->rowsCount() == 1)
{
// Outdim
string outdim_ = "";
outdim_ = results->getString("outdim");
String^ outdim = gcnew String(outdim_.c_str());
textBox1->Text = outdim;
}
else
{
// !!!! Duplicate materials in list
}
When it tries to read outdim from the result set the SEHException is thrown, and the only other piece of information given is that it was thrown in an external component.
Update 2: I ran Application Verifier against the debug executable and then launched the program from VS2010. However the form window never loads so somewhere along the line the program must be getting halted. Strangely there is absolutely no information in the log files in Application Verifier. I also tried with the release version and I didnt get any useful information from that either.