samba - Sep 2004 - file transfer freeze with SW [smbiod] process..

ahoy all.

working 2 machines, both with fedora core 2 Linux 2.6.8-1.521 and the 
following samba config:
samba-common-3.0.7-2.FC2
system-config-samba-1.2.9-2
samba-client-3.0.7-2.FC2
samba-3.0.7-2.FC2

can mount and unmount samba shares fine.  however, once any file 
transfer or seek or whatever (i.e. nautilus to view mounted folders, 
xmms to access files on mounted share, etc.) io with samba server 
freezes.  i cannot cd,ls into mounted directories. df,ls,cd eventually 
give up with message:

'/mnt/samba/casa/moe/share': Input/output error

afterwards cannot unmount shares (i.e. device busy) even after restart 
of samba server

three interesting things:

1. when i access the samba server from windows xp pro, no problems: only 
happens from the linux client.
2. when samba server starts, there are 2 smbd -D processes and one nmbd 
-D process.  even when restart samba server service, same thing.
3. when freeze occurs, following 2 processes show up:

root      3103  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        SW   13:35   0:00 [smbiod]
mrgrimm   3137  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        Z    13:38   0:00 [netstat] 
<defunct>

been unsuccessfully searching for an answer.  thanks in advance.