Comment 28 for bug 194474

Nick Sanders wrote on 2008-04-24 about deleting the mediamanagerrc file found in the .kde/share/config/ folder.

I had a look in mine, and found a specific entry that related to the usb drive that locked up the system whenever it was inserted. I deleted that item only (as there were other bits in there that seemed to be needed in my case) and all has been fine since.

Whilst not perhaps dealing with the root cause/problem, this seems a possible workaround, so thank you Nick.

For interest and possible bug tracing, the entry removed was:

[/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_WD_5000KS_External_57442D574D414E5531303938323230_0_0]
automount=true

Hope this helps others.