> > Try "acpi=noirq" as a kernel argument. Some AMD chipsets have problems > > letting the OS know what irq the 8250 timer is on, the nvidia one is > > definitely a problem, I have the same chipset in a couple of Dell > > Dimension e521 desktops :-( > > My explaination wasn't totally accurate. The acpi=noirq disables the > ACPI IRQ routing table lookup for IRQ redirects and reprogramming. Some > AMD chipsets had a bug in the way this table was built that caused 2.6 > kernels to fail in getting a hook into the table which caused all kinds > of intermittent problems. By disabling this feature you run the possibility > of IRQ conflicts that will need to use the IRQ management in the BIOS to > resolve. Updating the BIOS of the system sometimes fixes the problem. > > It just turns out that the system timer irq was my "symptom" that I > experienced, but it is different for different systems/configurations. > Thanks Ross. This does indeed make some sense. Currently we're trying with another known-good SATA disk just to rule that out then we'll give this a shot as well. Ray