Documentation says "The SCOPE clause has the same behavior as described for the alter_system_set_clause." when it talks about alter_system_reset_clause. But dynamically changeable parameter cannot be reset with scope=both: SQL> alter system set timed_statistics = false; System altered. SQL> alter system reset timed_statistics scope=both sid='*'; alter system reset timed_statistics scope=both sid='*' * ERROR at line 1: ORA-32009: cannot reset the memory value for instance * from instance GIRL SQL> alter system reset timed_statistics scope=spfile sid='*'; System altered. SQL> alter system set timed_statistics = true; System altered. The above test restores everything to its old setting. But if you try an underscore parameter (dynamically changeable), you'll have one difference made to the running instance: "show parameter" will show the value after the test, even though the value is back to the default. It's not a big deal except Enterprise Manager will warn you about a policy violation "Use of Non-Standard Initialization Parameters". I don't want to suppress this warning and don't want to bounce the instance to remove this parameter from "show parameter". Is there a workaround? Yong Huang ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l