>>> >>>...can't be bigger than your SGA since it is a component of >>>the shared pool. You must mean larger than your buffer >>>pool..and bingo, now the lights are comping on :-) Hold it, I made the speed-reading mistake here. Your queries of gv$sgastat threw me. The extent array is in the shared pool so it can't be larger than that. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l