[luv-main] Need help please

I'm running Ubuntu11.10 and 3 days ago it started a problem I've not seen before. For some reason it starts Nautilus out of the blue, I cannot intentionally repeat the problem and it seems to not be attributable to starting any particular application. It continues to open up new blank Nautilus windows every second or two until there about 300 and more open randomly placed on the desktop then the computer stalls and has to be shut down, left off for a few seconds and cold booted. ps aux shows long lists of nautius instances but shutting some down with kill restarts more. Got me very puzzled. Need help quick please thanks in advance Roger