I've got a machine running CentOS 3.5 with an Intel D865GBF motherboard and I've been having an occasional "event" where disk-intensive activity (such as running "yum check-update" or starting up OpenOffice) causes the load average to spike and X11 to become unresponsive (as in, the pointer won't even track the mouse) for a few seconds. The machine always recovers and returns to normal, but it's getting a bit annoying.
I saw one thread in which the suggested solution for a vaguely similar problem was to switch from the SMP kernel with hyperthreading to the UP kernel, but that hasn't made much difference. Then I saw Dave G's recent thread in which a more severe yum-related lockup was solved with a BIOS upgrade.
I see there's a D865GBF BIOS upgrade on the Intel site, dating from May. Problem is it comes only as either a Windows installer, or a bootable floppy -- and not only does this machine not have a floppy drive, but the case configuration is such that the DVD-ROM drive blocks access to the floppy connector on the motherboard, so I'm looking at minor surgery just to stick one in temporarily.
Is there any clever way around this? Some way to make a bootable CD from the floppy image, for example? Or must I grit my teeth and bring out the screwdrivers?