samba - Jul 2007 - Multiple processes of smbd spawning...don't know why

I'm running the latest version of ubuntu with Samba "smbd 3.0.24"
and for
some reason I the server is spawning multiple like 50-100 instances of smbd.
I try stopping samba, but the processes keep running.  This is a very small
network with only a few clients.like 4...so I'm not sure what the issue is.
I've been using samba for years and have never seen it spawn processes like
cancer before.  The issue is bringing down my server every few days.  Any
help would be appreciated.

 

thanks