I saw this: http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2005-February/042501.html which suggests that the RTC hang issue can be solved by setting CONFIG_HPET_RTC_IRQ=y I have confirmed that on a dell 1850, which used to hang when hwclock ran, the above configuration setting allows a normal boot. I suspect, but have not yet confirmed, that disabling HPET may also prevent hangs. Mike Stone