Just a FYI post.
It seems my motherboard has developed some problems. I have emailed Intel Asia support for repairing / replacing it as its still under warranty. If anybody has direct contact nos for Intel or any helpline nos that I can use please let me know as the warranty is expiring soon and so I need to get it to them ASAP.
Note, Linux wasn't responsible for the lock ups and those kernel messages can be safely ignored as they are just warnings. The RAM module is good as well. No problems with that.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions.
-- Dinesh A. Joshi