Weird problems with a Squid 2.0PATCH2 dying- HELP!

I have several Debian GNU/Linux systems on my network. One of them is
running Squid 2.0PATCH2, and having some interesting problems. Whenever
I use the Debian ``apt-get'' tool to upgrade the packages on my Debian
systems, the squid dies. Apt-get gives the following errors:

--snip--
Error http://va.debian.org slink/main screen
 Couldn't connect to localhost:8000
Fetched 3215k in 18m28s (2901b/s)
ERROR
http://va.debian.org/debian/dists/frozen/main/binary-i386/misc/screen_3.7.4-9.deb

  Couldn't connect to localhost:8000
--snip--

this isfrom the system that squid runs on. It goes through several
downloads, then refuses the connection. There is nothing else using the
proxy. The logs show:

--snip--
Nov 15 16:17:57 Phalanx squid[8803]: clientSendMoreData: Deferring
http://va.debian.org/debian/dists/frozen/main/binary-i386/devel/libc6-dev%5f2.0.7u-5.deb

Nov 15 16:20:29 Phalanx squid[8803]: clientKeepaliveNextRequest: FD 18
Sending next
Nov 15 16:20:36 Phalanx squid[8803]: clientSendMoreData: Deferring
http://va.deb
ian.org/debian/dists/frozen/main/binary-i386/misc/screen%5f3.7.4-9.deb
Nov 15 16:27:28 Phalanx squid[8803]: clientKeepaliveNextRequest: FD 18
Sending next
Nov 15 16:27:28 Phalanx squid[8803]: clientKeepaliveNextRequest:
entry->swap_status == STORE_ABORTED
Nov 15 16:27:38 Phalanx squid[8915]: Starting Squid Cache version
2.0.PATCH2 for i386-debian-linux-gnu...
Nov 15 16:27:38 Phalanx squid[8915]: Process ID 8915
Nov 15 16:27:38 Phalanx squid[8915]: With 256 file descriptors available

--snip--

Which is quite weird- it looks like the proxy is getting stopped and
restarted for some reason. This is bad.

What seems strange is that the problem only pops up when using apt-get.
Normal web browsing seems to work just fine.

The system the squid is on is a 486DX4-120, 32mb ram, 1.6gb disk. It's
running kernel 2.0.35, and all packages are current.

Any suggestions?

I've posted about this problem before, but got no response. Somebody
please reply.

--
 ______________________________________________________________
| ian eure, network admin, freelance security consultant, and  |
| manically depressed paranoid schizophrenic, at your service. |
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