I just went through this. This message revolves around orapwd and remote login. The following metalink article is good. There is a lot of confusing and contradictory information out there, but I am running the same version you are. My default databases were fine, but I have a couple of database homes that have more than one instance, and they were build by vendor scripts. We would need for info if anything changed, including the SYS password, additional instances in the ORACEL_HOME, are you logging in remotely, etc. Try here for starters. https://metalink2.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/f?p=130:14:97095114131277861 39::::p14_database_id,p14_docid,p14_show_header,p14_show_help,p14_black_ frame,p14_font:NOT,114384.1,1,0,1,helvetica or http://tinyurl.com/cxnh2e Mike ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of nilesh kumar Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 9:56 AM To: ORACLE-L Subject: /as sysdba insufficient privilege error Hello Good Morning!! Hope every one doing good. This morning I am trying to login to my windows database. It showing a strange error. How should I resolve this. D:\>sqlplus "/as sysdba" SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Wed Feb 4 20:22:29 2009 Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved. ERROR: ORA-01031: insufficient privileges Enter user-name: -- Thanks Nilesh Soni Oracle is not a magic..it takes years of experiance :-) 9860584034