Postgres problems with large databases.

Greetings,

I'm encounting some strange problems trying to use postgres on a table
with a fairly substantial amount of records (~1 million).

The problem comes when you try and select a record from the database.
Postmaster in debug mode complains whole heartedly about resource errors,
and after that, everything goes downhill (everything from postmaster crashes
to index corruption).  This occurs both with 6.5.3 and 7.0.2.

Any pointers/ideas?

-Dan
--
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called
upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
                -- Oscar Wilde