If I updatedb, the disk light is sporadic. If I drag my finger across the touchpad the light comes on solid. When booting, it's much faster if I move my finger on the touchpad. 'emerge kde-meta' on a new system took 36 hours. No idea how much of that was waiting for the touchpad.

The problem is not consistent, and eventually jobs get done without doing anything.

The problem has occurred with 2.6.29 and 2.6.31, Mandriva 2009.1 & 2010.0, and Gentoo.

My next step will probably be to remove the hard drive from my NB205 N210 and put it in my wife's N313 and see what happens.

I suspect it's a problem with interrupts. How would I find out? What more information is needed?

TIA
Jim