I need help debugging a random lockup

[Marshall Lewis]

I'm not sure how to begin debugging this, it's not something that I've
ever had happen on a linux system before.  I have an opteron workstation
here at work, and it locks up more or less randomly... It's a complete
system freeze.  There are no messages about it in /var/log/messages, and
I'm guessing there aren't any messages on the consoles, although I have
no real way to confirm. 

It doesn't seem to be application related (unless maybe it's X itself or
the nvidia drivers), and is not load related.  .. it can happen while
I'm clicking around in firefox, typeing on openoffice, coding in nedit
or zend studio, highlighting text, etc.. etc... .. and of course it even
happens when my back is turned (probably out of spite).

 On any other machine I might suspect the ram.. and I guess I'm kinda
suspecting the ram here, but it is an opteron, and it's running with ECC
ram... so ram really shouldn't be an issue right?  or wrong? : )


Any suggestions on how I can determine the cause of the lockup? (or at
least narrow it down).  BTW these lockups occured in FC1 as well
(currently running FC2T3).

--
 Marshall