SOLVED: On the original topic, the problem seems to have gone away with the latest kernel: marichter 2.6.18-194.11.1.el5 #1 SMP Tue Aug 10 19:05:06 EDT 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.x86_64 Thanks to all who may be held responsible. :-) Mark