I recently upgraded from Hardy to Intrepid and noticed this problem (although I'm using totem rather than rhythmbox).
I suspected pulseaudio but disabling this (by killing the process) made no difference.
My MP3s are on an external USB drive so it's not a hard disk contention issue.
What did make a difference was turning off compiz (System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects / Normal -> None) which I had turned on after upgrading. This solved the problem completely.
I recently upgraded from Hardy to Intrepid and noticed this problem (although I'm using totem rather than rhythmbox).
I suspected pulseaudio but disabling this (by killing the process) made no difference.
My MP3s are on an external USB drive so it's not a hard disk contention issue.
What did make a difference was turning off compiz (System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects / Normal -> None) which I had turned on after upgrading. This solved the problem completely.
I'm using a Dell D420 laptop with an Intel chip:
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
Possibly related to this bug?
https:/ /bugs.launchpad .net/ubuntu/ +source/ compiz/ +bug/193318