I have the same problem with a P4 2.4, 1 GB RAM, tested on all the onboard (Gigabyte 8PE667 Ultra) USB ports (all of them are 2.0).
Tested loading and unloading ehci-hcd.
Perhaps this happens due some kind of software uptate. I didn't had this problem a month ago.
I have Ubuntu 8.10 and with the previous version I had no problem with USB drives.
Sorry about my bad english.
I have the same problem with a P4 2.4, 1 GB RAM, tested on all the onboard (Gigabyte 8PE667 Ultra) USB ports (all of them are 2.0).
Tested loading and unloading ehci-hcd.
Perhaps this happens due some kind of software uptate. I didn't had this problem a month ago.
I have Ubuntu 8.10 and with the previous version I had no problem with USB drives.
Sorry about my bad english.