probably not so much a grip problem as an I/O problem. Any way to
check the kernel logs on the machine? I'm thinkin they are getting
flooded with I/O errors, in which case there's not a whole lot you
can do, besides try not to use discs that generate such errors. Sometimes
a process that is recieving these errors can be killed, othertimes it
cannot. Really depends.
but the symtoms you describe are in my experience similar to generic
I/O errors which can be triggered by most any program accessing
the hardware.
nate