F12 won't stop taking naps

[Robert G. (Doc) Savage]

The first step in finding and fixing a problem is coming up with a
description of the fault that helps you identify and focus on the
misbehaving component. That's what I've been struggling with since F12's
alpha release.

The sympton is a ThinkPad W700 uber-laptop that seems to "nap"
constantly. An example of a "nap" is a long pause -- several minutes --
in one of the steps during a non-graphical startup. For example: between
"Starting NFS statd:" and its "[ OK ]" completion. If I don't want to
wait for the timeout, I can generate a hardware interrupt by
left-clicking or touching the mouse or touchpad. I see from two to five
such pause episodes during every startup, but they never occur at the
same startup events.

It's not confined to the boot sequence, either. It affects the
NetworkManager-managed wireless port, which must frequently be manually
reconnected. The clock often stops even though ntpd is running. I've
even had to constantly trace a circle on the touchpad to keep a routine
fsck session from stalling. If I remove my finger from the touchpad, the
hard drive light stops blinking.

I'm fairly certain this problem, whatever it is, is specific to F12 and
not a hardware fault. It did not occur with F11 and earlier, nor when I
replace the Fedora hard drive with the original Vista hard drive and
boot up. It has manifested itself in both F12a and F12b releases, and
through all updates.

If I had to hazard a guess -- and a PWAG at that -- I might suspect
something is wrong with the power management code. I'm open to
suggestions.

--Doc Savage
  Fairview Heights, IL