[ltp] X31 hang with battery power

[Topper Doggle]

I have an X31 running Debian Etch with the Debian 2.6.18 kernel.  I've had
this problem ever since I bought the machine a few years ago, but finally it
is driving me mad.

Issue 1 is that it hangs randomly.  I can be working (or doing nothing) in X,
and for around ten seconds the hard disk light flickers and the machine
doesn't reply to terminal commands e.g. ls.  After that time, the light stays
on, everything freezes including mouse, and the only way out is a hard reset.
I'm 95% sure that this only occurs when the machine is running under battery
power.

Issue 2 is that when I suspend to ram, the machine (usually, /possibly/
always) hangs.  The screen lights up but doesn't display anything, and there
is no response to keyboard or mouse.  I hope that if I can solve issue 1, that
issue 2 will disappear.

Any clues appreciated, I have no idea how to start debugging this.