strange log messages/behavior

["Chris R. Martin" <bluerider@bigfoot.com>]

Has anyone ever seen these messages before? Does anyone know what they mean?

Mar 14 17:27:19 server init: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5
minutes
Mar 14 17:28:50 server init: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5
minutes
Mar 14 17:29:39 server init: Id "3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5
minutes
Mar 14 17:29:42 server init: Id "4" respawning too fast: disabled for 5
minutes
Mar 14 17:29:45 server init: Id "5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5
minutes
Mar 14 17:29:49 server init: Id "6" respawning too fast: disabled for 5
minutes
Mar 14 17:29:49 server init: no more processes left in this runlevel

My server stoped responding to telnet and ftp (it would immediately close
the connection). SAMBA and NFS still seemed to work however. So I got
access to the console, and tried to log in, it gave me the above messages
on the screen (and I found these in /var/log/syslog). Anyway, I did not see
any recourse other than to hit reset, because Ctrl-Alt-Del did not respond
either.

How should I have dealt with this problem? Any ideas how it occured?

Chris