Comment 10 for bug 54419

I had exactly the same problem as you guys on a 2.6.17 kernel (edgy) and I've tried to unload the ehci_hcd module.
That worked, but only with usb1.1 and not all the time...

After some research on google I've found this that worked great!
Just add "irqpoll' to the boot option of your kernel in menu.lst...

With this fix, I've usb2.0 and my usb memory key work all the time...

Hope it help.