psql dies on select *

I'v encountered a strange (to me) problem when running a 'select * from table' on a table with approx 1/2 million rows from psql.
When I run the select *, I get the following message to stdout:

Backend message type 0x44 arrived while idle
Backend message type 0x44 arrived while idle
We have lost the connection to the backend, so further processing is impossible. Terminating.

In the postgresql log I have the following:

May 15 08:16:08 logger: NOTICE: Message from PostgreSQL backend:
May 15 08:16:08 logger: ^IThe Postmaster has informed me that som
other backend died abnormally and possibly corrupted shared memory.
May 15 08:16:08 logger: ^II have rolled back the current transact
n and am going to terminate your database system connection and exit.
May 15 08:16:08 logger: ^IPlease reconnect to the database system
nd repeat your query

Now the starnge thing is that when I run the query:
select * from table where id>-1;
Everything works fine! (There are no ids less than zero)

System details:
Postgresql v 6.5.3
Linux 2.2.12
1/2 Gig ram

Is there a corrupt entry in the table? Is it a memory problem?
I'm really at a loss with this one.
Any help gratefully accepted.

Thanks

Kev.

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