kernel / video problem

[bill at mills-curran.net (Bill Mills-Curran)]

Some kind of email loop started on my system yesterday that generated a
huge inbox (> 20 GB) on my system.  It was detecting a relay loop and
then emailing the error which triggered another one.  Each email was
larger than the last because it contained an account of all the
previous errors.  After cleaning everything up, I rebooted because
some processes had failed due to lack of memory.

After rebooting to runlevel 5, I could not get back to graphics mode,
at least a visible graphics screen.  Although I can sometimes get a
graphics screen showing boot progress, it never gets to the splash
screen.  Everything from the text/console screens looks normal.  I
have not found any errors in the system log.  I've tried switching
monitors, and get the same result.

Now I've noticed errors in my logwatch email for the last 2 days (same
error twice):

 --------------------- Kernel Begin ------------------------ 

 
 WARNING:  Kernel Errors Present
     [<c01037ef>] error_code+0x4f/0x54   ...:  69 Time(s)
     [<c0313190>] do_page_fault+0x0/0x630     [<c01037ef>] error_code+0x4f/0x54 ...:  62 Time(s)
    Normal free:3224kB min:2776kB low:3468kB high:4164kB active:206364kB inactive:206236kB present:498944kx630     [<c01037ef>] error_code+0x4f/0x54 ...:  1 Time(s)
 
 ---------------------- Kernel End ------------------------- 

Because I had not previously noticed this error, I was thinking that
the video problem was hardware -- I was starting to look for a
replacement video card.  Now I'm not so sure.

What do these kernel errors mean?

Where are they logged?

Are the problems related (kernel errors & video problem)?

Any opinion whether this is a hardware or software problem?

TIA,
Bill

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