--- liboctave/CMatrix.orig	2007-09-24 14:20:52.000000000 +0200
+++ liboctave/CMatrix.cc	2007-09-24 14:28:49.000000000 +0200
@@ -2622,9 +2622,6 @@
 
   ComplexMatrix m = *this;
 
-  if (numel () == 1)
-    return ComplexMatrix (1, 1, exp (m(0)));
-
   octave_idx_type nc = columns ();
 
   // Preconditioning step 1: trace normalization to reduce dynamic
@@ -2639,7 +2636,11 @@
   trshift /= nc;
 
   if (trshift.real () < 0.0)
-    trshift = trshift.imag ();
+    {
+      trshift = trshift.imag ();
+      if (trshift.real () > 709.0)
+	trshift = 709.0;
+    }
 
   for (octave_idx_type i = 0; i < nc; i++)
     m.elem (i, i) -= trshift;
@@ -2724,8 +2725,13 @@
   int minus_one_j = -1;
   for (octave_idx_type j = 7; j >= 0; j--)
     {
-      npp = m * npp + m * padec[j];
-      dpp = m * dpp + m * (minus_one_j * padec[j]);
+      for (octave_idx_type i = 0; i < nc; i++)
+	{
+	  npp.elem (i, i) += padec[j];
+	  dpp.elem (i, i) += minus_one_j * pade0c[j];
+	}      
+      npp = m * npp;
+      dpp = m * dpp;
       minus_one_j *= -1;
     }