xl1200 net reset

[bruno@oz.geology.washington.edu (Steve Willis)]

hello.  Once again we're having a bit of trouble with our new and
improved xl1200 (running gen 8.1.1).  Someone tried to reset the
network  which failed with a trap to the debugger with the following
error message:

trap:  The word #<DTP-FIXNUM 17> was read from location 36... (in ETHER-BUFFER-AREA)
and the usual proceed options (eg, supply a value to use as contents of #<DTP-LOCATIVE 36...>,
retry the array-leader instruction, etc).

Would someone explain to me what this means and how to fix it.  I'd really
like to fix this problem without having to reboot, since the net is
now wedged and we cant save editor buffers, data , etc.  I'd warm boot,
but am afraid that it wouldnt work, and would like to try a couple of
things first.

This is the third time that we've been stung by the machine crashing to
the fep, the first time involved a bunch of memory errors, the second
involved incorrect data found by the garbage collector, and now what
looks like possibly more corrupt memory (we've had the machine for
about 2 weeks now).  Do these errors suggest a common theme to anyone??

I'm almost to the point where i make a change in a file, and save the
results immediately because we've been stung so much lately.  I'd greatly
appreciate any help anyone can offer.

thanks in advnace,
steve willis
bruno@oz.geology.washington.edu