Kernel panic: Fatal exception in interrupt : In interrupt handler - not syncing

[Rafael Gomes Monteiro]

Hi,

I've been using Fedora Core 2 very often and had no problems. Recently, the 
system started to freeze while I was using the GUI (either Gnome or KDE). 
When it happens I have to press the reset button (i've tried Ctrl+Alt+F*, 
Ctrl+Alt+Del, pressing the power button [ATX] but nothing works, I can't 
even change the NumLock status).

The only critical changes I did:
- an up2date (which updated the kernel to 2.6.6-1.435.2.1)
- installed the new NVIDIA driver (6106)

In graphical mode the system freezes and doesn't display any message. 
Recently I was able to see the system freezing in console mode (booted into 
init 5 and changed to init 3). It displayed an error message like this (i 
didn't write down all the hexadecimal numbers, but if that's needed I can do 
it later):

============================ begin ============================
3jbd
CPU: (some hex numbers)
EIP: (some hex numbers) Not tainted
EIFLAGS: (some hex numbers) (2.6.6-1.435.2.1)
EIP is at 0x236b1bb
...
CALL TRACE
run_timer_softirq+0x10b/0x12a
__do_softirq+0x35/0x73
do_softirq+0x46/0x4d
...
do_irq+0x15d/0x169
default_idle+0x23/0x26
cpu_idle+0x1f/0x34
start_kernel+0x178/0x17a

CODE: 00 b8 b1 36 02 c0 b1 36 02 c0 b1 36 02 c8 b1 36 02 c8 b1 36

<0> Kernel panic: Fatal exception in interrupt
In interrupt handler - not syncing
============================ end ============================

Steps to reproduce:
1. Start the system.
2. After some time (sometimes even during boot, sometimes it takes about 1 
hour or more) it crashes.

Things i've already tried:
- Uninstall NVIDIA's driver
- Downgrade the kernel to the 2.6.5 that comes with Fedora Core 2 CD1
- Reset BIOS values to "Optimal Values" and "Default Values"

I don't think it's a hardware problem since I have win2k installed in the 
same machine and it doesn't have any problems.

(and please excuse my poor english)

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