Hi.
I have some more info regarding this.
the problem is something relating to opensuse, I have tried the following systems
Mandriva 2006
Kubuntu 5.10
Fedora 4
The driver works on the same machine.
I have also found it is not the opensuse kernel, as I have used the exact same kernel for kubuntu and suse ( this was the vanila kernel with ck6 patches from here -
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=84174) BTW this is a great guide for recompiling a vinilla kernel with paches.
The kernel worked fine on both Kubuntu and Suse, however when I install nforce driver on Kubuntu my system works fine , whilst on Suse I get the crashing/locking up problem (this is on the same system).
Any other ideas?