In message <20030203164542.GA15935@cs.hut.fi>, you write: 

[...timeouts in eap PCI probe...]
-> Interesting. So sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't? I fail to
-> see how this would affect X11, though.

My Thinkpad T20 occasionally has similar problems (with the clcs device), 
which cause any access to the audio device to hang with a slew of timeout
messages; starting up GNOME or KDE in that state would always end up with
a wedged machine, at least in any configuration that enabled system/startup
sounds, as the box would wedge logging logging millions of timeout messages
to the disk (and probably never retured from the open(2) of the device). 
Not quite a pure X issue, but close 8-)

--rafal

----
Rafal Boni                                                     rafal@attbi.com
  We are all worms.  But I do believe I am a glowworm.  -- Winston Churchill