[Evolution] Synching a Handspring Visor (Palm Pilot) crashes my computer

[Jonathan Pryor <jonpryor vt edu>]

When I attempt to synchronize my Handspring Visor with Evolution 1.4, my
computer freezes, with the caps-lock and scroll-lock LED's blinking. 
This is with the most recent Evolution available through Red Carpet,
running under Red Hat 9.  I have parts of Ximian Desktop 2 installed as
well, but not all of it.  (Call it a bastardized hybrid between the
default Red Hat 9 and XD2.)

This is on a Dell Inspiron 4000 Laptop, though I doubt that should be a
factor.

Synching used to work with Evolution 1.2, so this behavior is new.

This has happened with Evolution 1.4.0 and 1.4.3.  I haven't tried to
sync with any other Evolution versions.

When I attempt to run /usr/libexec/gpilotd from the command line, the
last output I see before the computer freeze is:

        gpilotd-Message: gnome-pilot 2.0.10 starting...
        gpilotd-Message: compiled for pilot-link version 0.11.5
        gpilotd-Message: comiled with [VFS] [USB] [IrDA] [Network]
        gpilotd-Message: Activating CORBA server
        gpilotd-Message: bonobo_activation_active_server_register = 0
        gpilotd-Message: Watching Tricorder (/dev/pilot)
        gpilotd-Message: setting PILOTRATE=38400
        
        (gpilotd:2962): gpilotd-WARNING **: pi_accept_to: Connection timed out
        
        (gpilotd:2962): gpilotd-WARNING **: pi_accept_to: timeout was 4 secs

I searched the evolution mail archives, but nothing seemed applicable.

Any ideas about what could be wrong?

Thanks
 - Jon