GNOME Shell Becomes Unresponsive

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

We have one workstation where GNOME Shell will periodically become
completely unresponsive.  This happens very reliably if the user
attempts to lock the display;  sometimes the display will blank and then
be unresponsive other times it will not blank but become unresponsive.
In either case the only way to get the desktop responsive again is to
kill the X process [which I do via SSH].

Suggestions

openSUSE 11.4 / x64
gnome-shell-3.2.0-3.1.x86_64

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor
Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core
Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset
Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family KT
Controller (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network
Connection (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family USB
Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family High
Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family PCI
Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family PCI
Express Root Port 3 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family USB
Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev a4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family LPC
Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 SATA RAID
Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family SMBus
Controller (rev 04)