Ian Douglas:
<1>Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address
[...]
Firstly, does anyone know what is causing this repeated error message and what I can do to cure it.
That's a kernel fart, I think. My normal solution is to rebuild a kernel that's better suited to my hardware, and/or upgrade the kernel to a less buggy one.
Secondly, if I come across an error message like this in the future could anyone recommend any info anywhere which would help me understand what it means so I can learn how to interpret it myself rather than bother you guys again?
Your best bet is to search mailing lists and/or newsgroups on google and see what people like the kernel developers have said about the error. You'll probably have more luck searching on the interesting parts of the message like "Bad EIP" than "Null pointer..." which is quite a common error.
Hope that helps.