A method, a computer program product and a system for reconfiguring functional capabilities in a data processing system with dormant resources. Dormant resources of a data processing system are used to replace (360) the functional characteristics of a broken hardware unit in order to compensate the lost resources. If sufficient dormant resources are available to replace the functional capabilities of the broken hardware unit, the data processing system can be used without any degradation of its capabilities. Otherwise the degradation is reduced. The functional part of the broken hardware unit is fenced (340) from the system, but its configuration data is read (350) from its non-functional part. The enablement definition data contained in the configuration data is then analysed for missing resources. Available dormant resources are then enabled until all the lost resources are replaced or no more dormant resources are available for the replacement.