Is it feasible for you to - backup - do some nasties to reduce the overhead of committing but leave your database in a risky state - shutdown/startup or that sort of thing ? If so, there's some hidden parameters to play with -- Connor McDonald =========================== email: connor_mcdonald@xxxxxxxxx web: http://www.oracledba.co.uk "Semper in excremento, sole profundum qui variat"