Removing DVD/CD-ROM prevents kernel stealing CPU cycles?

A reader has found that removing the optical media drive from the media bay of his PowerBook G3 ("Lombard") fixes an ongoing problem he has had with the kernel saturating the CPU. Tim Cartwright writes:

"I've been struggling for months with a Mac OS X bug where the kernel suddenly starts taking up 40% to 80% (or more) of the CPU. I've done extensive troubleshooting, written to various technical forums, and submitted a bug report to Apple. Finally I found a workaround for my 400 MHz PowerBook G3 (Lombard): remove the DVD/CD-ROM drive from the machine."