If I insert then safely remove a USB flash memory drive, and repeat this a number of times in a row, my system will hard lock.
As far as I can tell it will happen with any USB flash drive. I have a total of 12 different ones I have tested with now. They are different brands, different sizes, different filesystems, etc.
I have replicated the problem with the following operating systems:
Ubuntu 10.10 64bit LiveCD
Linux Mint 10 LiveCD
OpenSuSE 11.3 KDE LiveDVD
Debian Edition Linux Mint (LMDE) LiveCD
It also happens on my installed system, Ubuntu 10.10.
All I have to do is repeatedly insert and remove a USB flash drive and sooner or later the system will hard lock.
When it locks, nothing is response. The mouse cursor freezes, CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't do anything, no special keys have any effect, and nothing is written to the system log. In addition, there are no errors in the system log preceding the lock up.
No overclocking or any other special settings. The bios settings are all defaults.
Components:
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory - 16 GB total
SeaSonic 650W Power Supply X650 Gold
ZOTAC ZT-40601-20L GeForce GT 430 Graphics Card