Comment 20 for bug 21790

The desktop machine which experiences this problem is a Fujitsu/Siemens celeron
1.70GHz with 256M of memory. The disk info is:

/dev/hda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number: Maxtor 2F040L0
        Serial Number: F137NAVE
        Firmware Revision: VAM51JJ0
Standards:
        Supported: 7 6 5 4
        Likely used: 7
Configuration:
        Logical max current
        cylinders 16383 16383
        heads 16 16
        sectors/track 63 63
        --
        CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
        LBA user addressable sectors: 80293248
        device size with M = 1024*1024: 39205 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000: 41110 MBytes (41 GB)
Capabilities:
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        Queue depth: 1
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 0
        Advanced power management level: unknown setting (0x0000)
        Recommended acoustic management value: 192, current value: 254
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
        Enabled Supported:
           * NOP cmd
           * READ BUFFER cmd
           * WRITE BUFFER cmd
           * Host Protected Area feature set
           * Look-ahead
           * Write cache
           * Power Management feature set
                Security Mode feature set
           * SMART feature set
           * FLUSH CACHE EXT command
           * Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command
           * Device Configuration Overlay feature set
           * Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
                SET MAX security extension
                Advanced Power Management feature set
           * DOWNLOAD MICROCODE cmd
           * SMART self-test
           * SMART error logging
Security:
        Master password revision code = 65534
                supported
        not enabled
        not locked
                frozen
        not expired: security count
        not supported: enhanced erase
HW reset results:
        CBLID- above Vih
        Device num = 0 determined by CSEL
Checksum: correct

All packages are up-to-date breezy (sudo apt-get dist-upgrade) [Kernel 2.6.12-9]

The laptop [Which doesn't experience problems] is a Toshiba Satellite Pro A60,
with a celeron 2.80GHz, 768M of memory. I can't post the hdparm info right now
as I don't have it on me, but it's ATA 40G drive I'm fairly sure.