Please try using this CVS snapshot:

  http://snaps.php.net/php5.2-latest.tar.gz
 
For Windows:
 
  http://snaps.php.net/win32/php5.2-win32-latest.zip

Just tried the 5.2cvs snapshot. Same result. No change.

Thank you for this bug report. To properly diagnose the problem, we
need a short but complete example script to be able to reproduce
this bug ourselves. 

A proper reproducing script starts with <?php and ends with ?>,
is max. 10-20 lines long and does not require any external 
resources such as databases, etc. If the script requires a 
database to demonstrate the issue, please make sure it creates 
all necessary tables, stored procedures etc.

Please avoid embedding huge scripts into the report.

<?php

$link = new PDO("mysql:host=127.0.0.1;port=11113;","user","password");
$link->setAttribute (PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$link->setAttribute (PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_USE_BUFFERED_QUERY, TRUE);
$link->query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");

try {
  $link->query("show slave status");
  echo "good";
}
catch (PDOException $e) {
  echo "<pre>";
  print_r($e);
  echo "</pre>";
}

?>

$link->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, true);