The problem, as svk said, is that you must match the columns in the INSERT clause with columns in the SELECT or VALUES clause.

Therefore, if you wish to exclude a column from the INSERT, you *need* to list the other columns in the INSERT clause.

So, if you have TABLE1 with COL1 and COL2,

INSERT INTO
--TABLE1
VALUES
--(1, 2)

...works fine. However, if you wish to let Col2 use a default instead, the following *will not* work:

INSERT INTO
--TABLE1
VALUES
--(1)

The correct syntax would be:
INSERT INTO
--TABLE1
--(COL1)
VALUES
--(1)

Actually, you should *always* specify a column list for every INSERT. Correspondingly, you should *always* specify the entire column list for every SELECT (ie, SELECT * is bad!). Trust me, you will save yourself headaches down the line :)

HTH,

- Chris