Siva,
This is *exactly* where 10g's ASH (Active Session History) comes in. Simply put, ASH is a history of V$SESSION_WAIT for all ACTIVE sessions, samled every second. This is buffered in memory using a circular buffer and every 10th sample then persisted to AWR. While it is NOT as granular as a 10046 trace, it is a great tool for tracing an issue "after the fact". More details in my book if you are interested...
But you need to baby sit when this is happening right? I think it looks more like a global db blockage, AWR report good starting point.
Generally v$session_waits is used(i use) for what's happening NOW! and AWR(statspack 9i) to what happend in past.
-- John Kanagaraj <>< DB Soft Inc Phone: 408-970-7002 (W)
Disappointment is always inevitable; Discouragement is invariably optional
** The opinions and facts contained in this message are entirely mine and do not reflect those of my employer or customers **