Hello listmates, I hope some of you can help me by shedding some light on the current situation. In short, I'd like to know if my machine is dying or if there is a software issue. The machine in question is about 7 years old and has recently started experiencing lock-ups, kernel errors and kernel-oops'. In /var/log/messages, I find the following things: ---------------------- Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000f60 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: printing eip: Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: c017d37f Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: *pde = 00000000 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: Oops: 0000 [#5] Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: SMP Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: last sysfs file: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/class Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: Modules linked in: xt_tcpudp xt_pkttype ipt_LOG xt_limit vboxdrv nfsd exportfs lockd nfs_acl sunrpc w83627hf hwmon_vid hwmon af_packet snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_seq_midi snd_emu10k1_synth snd_emux_synth snd_seq_virmidi snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq_midi_emul snd_seq ipt_REJECT xt_state iptable_mangle iptable_nat nf_nat iptable_filter nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_conntrack nfnetlink ip_tables ip6_tables x_tables apparmor nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 vfat fat fuse loop dm_mod nvidia(P) snd_emu10k1 firmware_class snd_ac97_codec snd_usb_audio snd_usb_lib ac97_bus snd_pcm button snd_timer pwc compat_ioctl32 snd_rawmidi snd_page_alloc usb_storage snd_seq_device snd_util_mem rtc_cmos videodev parport_pc via_ircc rtc_core snd_hwdep rtc_lib sr_mod snd ide_core irda crc_ccitt cdrom parport i2c_viapro ns558 shpchp emu10k1_gp v4l2_common via_agp v4l1_compat agpgart soundcore 3c59x pci_hotplug gameport i2c_core mii sg sd_mod uhci_hcd ehci_hcd ohci_hcd usbcore edd ext3 mbcache jbd fan pata_via libata aic7xx Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: x scsi_transport_spi scsi_mod thermal processor Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: CPU: 0 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: EIP: 0060:[<c017d37f>] Tainted: P N VLI Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: EFLAGS: 00010202 (2.6.22.18-0.2-default #1) Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: EIP is at lock_get_status+0x172/0x239 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: eax: 00000006 ebx: dc99901a ecx: 00000000 edx: d73bdeec Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: esi: df7f03fc edi: 00000ec4 ebp: dc999000 esp: d73bdee4 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: ds: 007b es: 007b fs: 00d8 gs: 0033 ss: 0068 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: Process lsof (pid: 2977, ti=d73bc000 task=d180d570 task.ti=d73bc000) Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: Stack: dc999014 c0313c65 c031b8cc c03191ab d180d570 c0158205 df7f03fc df7f0400 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: 00000000 c017e2b9 c03191ab 00000000 d73bdf64 00000010 00000001 00000000 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: dc999000 00000400 00000400 00000400 dc999000 c01a2a00 00000400 c01a29f0 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: Call Trace: Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c0158205>] __alloc_pages+0x60/0x2d6 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c017e2b9>] get_locks_status+0x50/0xf0 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c01a2a00>] locks_read_proc+0x10/0x25 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c01a29f0>] locks_read_proc+0x0/0x25 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c01a134f>] proc_file_read+0x10b/0x245 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c01a1244>] proc_file_read+0x0/0x245 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c017150c>] vfs_read+0xa6/0x12e Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c01718ec>] sys_read+0x41/0x67 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: [<c0104e22>] sysenter_past_esp+0x6b/0xa9 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: ======================= Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: Code: b8 31 c0 a8 01 75 05 ba cc b8 31 c0 89 d0 89 1c 24 89 44 24 08 c7 44 24 04 65 3c 31 c0 e8 a7 3d 05 00 8b 4e 18 01 c3 85 ff 74 38 <8b> 87 9c 00 00 00 8b 50 08 8b 47 20 89 4c 24 08 89 1c 24 c7 44 Oct 23 00:00:04 magrathea kernel: EIP: [<c017d37f>] lock_get_status+0x172/0x239 SS:ESP 0068:d73bdee4 ------------------------------------------- Oct 27 00:50:01 magrathea kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 12, COCOD 00000000 01011900 00000019 00000400 d73e09ff ------------------------------------------- Oct 27 00:53:46 magrathea kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 12, COCOD 00000000 01011900 00000019 00000400 00000000 ------------------------------------------- The machine has an NVidia card, so the message above might be caused by the NVidia proprietary driver. I need this driver for serious projects (okay, Simcity 4 Rush Hour :-) ) As far as I can trace back, this started happening somewhere around the second week of October. I'd be happy if someone can help me find out if this is a software problem, a hardware issue or perhaps both. I should mention that this machine is running openSUSE 10.3, with all the latest updates. It has been running flawlessly for several years, without any lock-ups or anything. Kind regards, Joop