linux log memory hogging issue
Solution 1:
In situations such as yours I have run ps aux from cron every minute so I could look back and find the memory hog. Put the following in your crontab:
* * * * * (date ; ps aux) >> $HOME/ps-aux
Caution: this may build a large log file over time.
After your next crash, you can look back through the file looking for processes that use a lot of memory (the "%MEM", "VSZ", and "RSS" columns would be where to look).