I think the symptoms suggest some resource running out. Typically I'mnot around when it hangs (did I say constantly? :-). But on the very few occasions when I have it appears to slowly (well over 30 seconds) die - one window hangs, next window hangs, mouse becomes sluggish ...Maybe you're running out of swap ? Can you make something to record swap usage (mrtg ? :) and see how it goes before the crash ?
I'll try anything. The machine has 256mb ram, 1gb swap. Andrew