message type 0x44

Hi

I have been trawling the archives but have not what I am after with
regards to the message below.

from pg_dump -d ourdb > quick-backup-dec7.db

I eventuate with the following

$ pg_dump: message type 0x44 arrived from server while idle
$ pg_dump: dumpClasses(): SQL command failed
$pg_dump: Error message from server: server closed the connection unexpectedly
This probably means the server terminated abnormally
before or while processing the request.
$ pg_dump: The command was: FETCH 100 FROM _pg_dump_cursor

Not quite sure what it all means, DB seems to be functioning OK but I am
not convinced I am dumping all the I am expecting to.

Any pointers/clues would be great

The PSQL Version 7.2, yes, old I know, just not feasible to upgrade just
yet, inherited this and have a bit to learn. Also there is no syslog
logging at present, all goes to console at the moment, however there seems
to be no log messages with this.

TIA

Neil