Oh, forgot to link to the LKML threads: http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0702.0/0930.html http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0702.1/0657.html -- Hard disk I/O randomly freezes when hald is running and optical drive is empty https://launchpad.net/bugs/84603