safe mode workaround

Hi,
We're using Oracle 8.1.7.0.0 Personal Edition in a PC controlled piece of equipment. A C++ application controls the machine and accesses a fixed size table in Oracle for data storeage.

Everything's been hunky dory with the dozen or so systems in the field but a new installation has just shown an error.

The facts appear to be; the PC was rebooted but the database somehow failed to start up properly (the symptom being that the C++ application couldn't connect to it). Someone then did a safe mode start (START NOMOUNT etc) which seemed to do the trick. But this safe mode start, apparently, has to be done everytime the system is restarted.

One problem is that we don't have very much Oracle expertise, none that couldn't be learnt from a book in a couple of months anyway. Another problem is that the system is on the other side of the world. We can NetSupport into it as long as the connection holds up.

Oracle Support had a look at the trace logs but they didn't seem to show anything useful. We're going to delete the database and start again but would like to know what went wrong.

The system tablespace is at 98%, oops. But as I said its a fixed size table and if this was the problem, as I understand it, we would have seen an ORA message before any file was corrupted.

Any suggestions (in layman's terms) as to what we should check, possible cause etc greatfully received.
thanks

Tim Received on Thu Apr 03 2003 - 10:35:56 CST