kmem_alloc corruption and install failure

[Dennis Payne <dulsi identicalsoftware com>]

I've had a system running Redhat 6.1 for about a year now.  It has never
been quite right.  It seems to die when I access the cdrom drive for
a while.  I get messages like the following in the messages log file:

Jun  8 18:57:25 orion kernel: kmem_alloc: Bad slab magic (corrupt) (name=size-4096) 

Just the other day I tried installing Redhat 7.1 but failed.  Just like
the failures under 6.1 it isn't always at the same point and the failures
vary in form.  (I've got an anacdump.txt from one of them but I doubt it
explains much.)  I tried swapping out the cdrom drive but that didn't
help.

Considering that it dies quickly when the cdrom is actively used but not
harddrive activity or cpu intensive work, I'm assuming it is probably
motherboard related.  I've got a Gigabyte GA-7IXE motherboard.
Any suggestions?

Dennis Payne
dulsi identicalsoftware com