thanks all for u're ideas, and the elimination of kapm-idled. so that leaves me with either a buggy kernel or inefficient CPU cooling. i dont know if this is related but i looked through my BIOS settings and i disabled any APM and power management utils of the BIOS and i havent yet gotten the problem again. but i sure will try another kernel :p just to be sure. thanks! jorge ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Segmentation Fault hello all. i am using SuSE 7.1 Kernel 2.4.0-4GB which runs well except for the following problem i have encountered. the system boots up fine and is generally smooth untill after some time, when i try to run a command like 'ls' or 'cp', it returns 'Segmentation Fault' and from then on i cant do anything.( eg if i try to login it refreshes back to the "Login:" prompt after inputing a username) and i am forced to reboot. when i run 'top' i find a process called 'kapm-idled' taking up a lot of CPU usage .. upto 90+ % ! and i cant kill it. any one got any ideas on how i can over come this problem? i would really appreciate it. thanks. George.