You are guessing correctly at the next option I've run into.
I noticed a number of people talking about the hangs starting as soon as they upgraded to new equpiment. The ones that posted detailed equipment specs were talking about 4-processor machines. Their software didn't change or anything. Just the hardware.
Same scneario here.
I just tried one more thing. If we crash again, I'm strongly leaning towards getting Bob to rip out two processors from the machine.