Tested on 3.17-rc5-utopic as instructed, I observed the same behaviour: all reset methods except writing to CF9 result in the system getting stuck after the kernel issues the "Restarting System" message, then the machine powers down suddenly.
Resetting via CF9 still results in disks going into emergency head park before the system restarts, so it's still a reset method I'd *really* wish to avoid.
Tested on 3.17-rc5-utopic as instructed, I observed the same behaviour: all reset methods except writing to CF9 result in the system getting stuck after the kernel issues the "Restarting System" message, then the machine powers down suddenly.
Resetting via CF9 still results in disks going into emergency head park before the system restarts, so it's still a reset method I'd *really* wish to avoid.