If you encounter an out of space issue (B37 abend) for the output data set from a PROC SORT step that uses PROC SYNCSORT, you might experience cascading failures.

For example, the following steps occur when you encounter this issue:

1. A B37 abend occurs, which causes SAS ESTAE processing to be called.
2. SAS executes a DELETE for the active module that suffered the B37 abend.
3. The DELETE action causes the storage to be zeroed out.
4. Control is passed back, which causes RETURN from LINK and this leads to an S0C1 abend.
5. Upon processing of the S0C1 abend, registers are loaded from low core.
6. The invalid register values surface an S0C4 abend.
   Note: Due to termination and recovery, you might experience recursive S0C4 abends and the JOB must be forced off the system

Until you can apply a fix from Syncsort, a workaround is to disable the PROC SYNCSORT product, which is an add-on product available from Syncsort Inc. for sites that run SAS.

Contact Syncsort support and reference SYNCSORT APAR SY73680 for the fix for this issue.