Higher availability in a computer system is achieved by utilizing PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) adapters capable of dynamically switching between being controlled by a system processor and a specialized input/output processor (IOP). A method of fault recovery in such a computer system involves switching those PCI adapters under IOP control to operate under system control when an IOP fault is detected, and switching the same PCI adapters back to IOP control when correction of the fault is detected. A computer system with dynamically switchable PCI adapters also has the capability of optimizing processor utilization by switching control from one processor to the other when it is determined that the processor currently controlling the PCI adapters is being over utilized, and such over utilization is likely to continue for a period of time, and the non-controlling processor has sufficient capacity that the switch would not adversely affect current system throughput.