The following line is found when I try to restart the stopped splunkd process:-
05-12-2010 14:30:50.819 ERROR WordPositionData - couldn't parse hash code:
Cannot get Splunk running again, Please advise
Usually, more information is required for investigating crashes:
If by chance you're running 4.1x on Windows, the error most likely to points to an issue with corrupted metadata files due to a crash. The corruption of metadata files due to crash will be fixed in 4.1.4. In the meantime you could try to repair your metadata files per this answers post: http://answers.splunk.com/questions/715/corrupt-metadata
Or, contact support and provide a splunk-diag from the instance in question for further assistance.