SQL*Plus cursor performance

This is getting quite confusing. I have this cursor that simply evaluates a record in a view and from that it makes the appropriate inserts. Of course, for every insert the appropriate indexes are updated, rollback segments are churning, extents are poping and what ever else needs to be done is getting done.

But, I have noticed that on larger cursors (for my app) of about 1,000 records the sqlplus run will hang for no apparent reason. CPU heads south and things stop. As far as I can determine, something is locked, not released, waiting for a lock or an extent; but, things work once I re-run the sql process and the procedure completes successfully.

What should I look for in the database that may be causing this? Which tablespace extents? Why can't I simply have a cursor of 16,000 records and perform these inserts all at one instead of attempting to break the cursor down to smaller sized lists.

-- 
Neil Greene
benchMark Developments, Inc. [NeXT VAR]
2040 Regency Road, Suite C Lexington, KY 40503
Phone: 606-231-6599 / Fax: 606-254-4864