# Compaq EVO N600c - Ethernet Controller stops working

## bdeclerc

I'm installing Gentoo 1.2 on my new laptop, but the network-card is giving me problems.

I tried this with both the eepro100 kernel driver and the Intel e100 2.1.6 driver, on gentoo kernel 2.4.19r5

I load the module, then do "dhcpcd eth0". An IP-address is correctly assigned, but after downloading a non-fixed amount of date (usually between 500KB and 10 MB) the NIC just stops transferring stuff. As soon as I kill dhcpcd and redo dhcpcd eth0, I can continue for another set of data.

The eepro100 driver says "wait_for_cmd_done timeout" when that happens and on every subsequent attempt to do IP-communication.

The e100 driver doesn't say anything, just stops working, although it does seem to on average stay up for much longer.

doing a "cat /proc/pci" gives me the following info on the ethernet controller:

```

Bus  2, device   8, function  0:

    Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801CAM (ICH3) Chipset Ethernet Controller (rev 65).

      IRQ 11.

      Master Capable.  Latency=66.  Min Gnt=8.Max Lat=56.

      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0x40100000 [0x40100fff].

      I/O at 0x2800 [0x283f].

```

The README file for the e100 driver doesn't clearly list this controller as being supported, so maybe it is too new, but Googleing around found lots of mentions of this problem (usually in the context of the eepro100 driver).

Anybody have a clue what might be going wrong?

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## Evangelion

There is a known problem in early N600c:s. Basically a compoment on the MoBo overheats causing the NIC to drop network connection. It should be replaced under warranty.

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## bdeclerc

 *Quote:*   

> There is a known problem in early N600c:s. Basically a compoment on the MoBo overheats causing the NIC to drop network connection. It should be replaced under warranty.

 

Do you have any references for that? It's my work laptop, and under Windows2000 it's basically fine (have copied lots of stuff without dropping connection). It's a brand-new machine (just arrived yesterday), so it's unlikely to be an "early" N600c.

Bart

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## Evangelion

 *bdeclerc wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   There is a known problem in early N600c:s. Basically a compoment on the MoBo overheats causing the NIC to drop network connection. It should be replaced under warranty. 
> 
> Do you have any references for that? It's my work laptop, and under Windows2000 it's basically fine (have copied lots of stuff without dropping connection). It's a brand-new machine (just arrived yesterday), so it's unlikely to be an "early" N600c.
> 
> Bart

 

Well, that was our laptop of choice in our office. We got over 50 of 'em, and almost all of 'em suffered from that problem. Same thing happened in our other offices. The problem was confirmed by Compaq, and our vendor sent a team to fix the machines. It could be that Gentoo demands more from the hardware so it overheats faster. My N600c dropped the network-connection in W2K if I left it running for the night. One thing that makes me wonder is that you have a brand-new machine.... That problem should be fixed by now. Other than that, your description fits perfectly with my own experiences with the machine.

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## bdeclerc

OK, it's getting a bit odd. At home, I run Mandrake on my Firewall/DHCP machine, and here I have no problems at all (even ftp'd a 700MB ISO from my own PC to the laptop and emerged mozilla and its dependencies)...

So the problem appears to be with the network at work. It obviously has far more computers on it than my home network (at least 600 within the same IP-range whereas at home that is about 3 ...), so maybe it's that. DHCP-leases at work are 3 months, just like at home, so that shouldn't be it...

Tomorrow I'll try a fixed IP-address, to see if the connection holds out then...

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## bdeclerc

OK, I tried it with a fixed IP-address, same symptoms...

Our HW responsible has asked our Compaq reseller to make enquiries about this issue. If it's the case for my Portable, I'll get the MoBo replaced.

Just goes to show what weird issues can crop up...

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## Messiah

Ehheh, for a friend of mine I suggested him to take a look at Gentoo, after succesfully transferred him from Win XP to Suse Linux.

Suse Linux worked perfectly, as did Win XP before. But when installing Gentoo, he had the same issues. Since it was a very little computer I told him to bring his computer to me, and I installed just fine in this network. There are really no differences betweek this network, and his. We both use DHCP (tried diabling it, it doesn't matter). In his network I tried to put his computer directly to the internet (switched router to bridge/modem), and it didnt work. Here it just worked. Nothing different, really.

After installing everything works fine in his own network. No problems at all!

I suggest you install your basic system including your own kernel elsewhere, and then finish your system at your usual place.

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