a method of automatically invoking a recoverable and fault tolerant implementation of the complemented / recomplemented error correction method without the assistance of a service processor when an excessive error is detected in main storage by ecc logic circuits . an excessive error is not correctable by the ecc . these novel changes to the c / r method increase its effectiveness and protect the c / r hardware against random failure . further , if an excessive error is corrected in a page in ms , an excessive error reporting process is provided for controlling the reporting using a storage map to determine if a previous correction in that page has been reported . if it has been reported , then no further reporting of soft excessive errors is made for that page . a service processor is signaled in parallel to update its persistent copy of the storage map so that on a next initializations of ms the memory map can be restored in the memory . the memory map is used to assist the repair of failing parts of ms , and is reset after ms is repaired .