> have you tried a really recent kernel?  charles has fixed several problems
> in the new com driver in the past few weeks...

  I had high hopes for those changes to fix the problem, but haven't had an
opportunity to try a new kernel (I haven't wanted to reboot the machine).
However, David Wetzel's Nov. 28 post indicated that he is using a Nov. 27
kernel and is seeing the same problem, so I assume that constitutes a clear
indication that those changes didn't fix it.