ZHU EXPERIENCED IDENT DIFFICULTY WITH I90 HDOF AFTER LATER NOTIFICATION OF AN I90 ARTS PROGRAM FAILURE.

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I WAS WORKING THE BPT (R36) POS AT ZHU WHEN HOUSTON APCH CALLED TO HAND OFF ACR Y. IT WAS NOT DEPARTED AND I ADVISED HOUSTON APCH THAT IT WAS NOT DEPARTED. HOUSTON APCH TRIED TO HAND OFF ACR Y AGAIN SEVERAL MINS LATER. IT WAS STILL NOT DEPARTED. I WAS BUSY TRYING TO GET THE STRING OF DEPS ON COURSE THAT HOUSTON APCH HAD LEFT ON HDGS AND SPDS WITHOUT COORDINATING. I HIT THE FLT READOUT BUTTON AGAIN AND I ASKED HOUSTON APCH CTL TO VERIFY THE DST AND RTE OF ACR X. HE ADVISED THAT HE DID NOT KNOW THE DEST OR RTE OF ACR X. I MANUALLY DEPARTED A PROPOSAL FOR ACR X AND TOOK A HDOF FROM HOUSTON APCH. THEN I VERIFIED THE RTE OF ACR X; WHEN THE PLT CHKED ON MY FREQ. AFTER RESEARCHING THIS INCIDENT; IT APPEARS THAT AN ARTS (COMPUTER) FAILURE HAD OCCURRED WHICH I HAD NO KNOWLEDGE OF ABOUT 15 MINS PRIOR TO MY TAKING THE POS. ALSO; I HIT THE FLT READOUT BUTTON SEVERAL TIMES WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS HITTING THE DEP MESSAGE BUTTON. HOUSTON APCH WAS NOT ABLE TO DEPART THIS ACFT; NOR DID THEY KNOW WHERE HE WAS GOING. THIS CAUSED ACR Y TO HAVE TO MAKE A 360 DEG TURN UNTIL I HAD TIME TO MANUALLY DEPART THE ACFT AND VERIFY HIS RTE. IF I HAD NOT BEEN BUSY CLRING DEPS ON COURSE AND CORRECTING THEIR SPDS; I COULD HAVE HELPED THE HOUSTON APCH CTLR SOONER AND ACR X COULD HAVE CONTINUED ON HIS ROUTING. ALSO; IF I HAD KNOWN OF THE COMPUTER ARTS FAILURE; I COULD HAVE SENT A CORRECTION MESSAGE AND RE-ARTS FORCED THE ACFT.