Freezes when sleeping/(un)plugging USB

[Dennis Fazio]

I seem to have a more than occasional problem with a Rev B TiBook when transitioning. I move it back and forth to work each day and around the house, so I frequently plug/unplug external monitors and USB keyboards. There seems to be a magic sequence here, though, since if I don't do it in the right order and slowly enough for it to keep up, I can get the TiBook into a freeze situation where the screen backlight is out and it doesn't respond to anything except forced reboot.

It usually occurs if I unplug USB keyboards right on top of closing the lid and may be exacerbated by reopening the lid again too quickly. Since removing a USB plug will briefly awaken a sleeping system, it must be getting into a race or deadlock state somehow. It seems that it should not be this fragile to plugging things and sleeping, since it is meant to be a versatile portable.

Is there some tried and true method for doing this or is my problem unique to me? It may also be related to unplugging the external monitor which is arranged in a non-mirrored setup.
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Dennis Fazio
dfz at mac.com