Jan 16 07:03:23 server kernel: irq 177: nobody cared (try booting with the "irqpoll" option) I spoke too soon, the problem wasn't fixed but I found the cause of the issue. The above error occurs when you unplug the video cable from the onboard video. As our machines are mainly headless terminals, this will not do at all. Does the BIOS allow you to disable the video hardware completely? Does that enable your kernel to boot? If not, grab the kernel source and build a kernel without console support (which is what I had to do for our headless embedded systems) sshd is the only way to talk to my target machines. ---- The kernel boots fine, and everything works ok until you unplug the monitor from the DVI port on the motherboard. When you unplug the monitor, that IRQ/ACPI message is displayed, and it screws up the USB and the e1000 card in the system. These machines aren't always headless, sometimes we need to plug monitors into them. thanks, -Drew