[vortex] 3c905C start-up hang

[Randall A. Jones]

Hello,
  We recently purchased quite a few machines that have a 3c509C card. 
We are running RH7.1 with the RedHat 2.4.3-12 kernel.  
Problem:
  when the network starts, the actual connection is delayed by about 30
seconds *every time*.  It looks like it is stalling at auto-neg.  We
connect to a Cisco switch.  There are 2 10/100 cards in the switch, one
older than the other.  When we connect to the newer switch card, we see
the delay, then a 100baseTx-FD auto-neg connection is made (as reported
by mii-diag -v and seen at the switch).
When we connect to the older switch card, the auto-neg fails and we end
up at 10baseT, but the connection is made immediatly.

Are there any known incompatabilities between 3c905C NICs and certain
switches/routers?
Are there any tests I can do to furthur diagnose the exact problem
cause.

Any help would be much appreciated.  We'd like to avoid replacing ALL
our NICs if possible.

P.S. is it possible to change default settings by adding options to the
driver in modules.conf?
It seems that 1 card is no longer working properly (as it was anyway)
after trying some options in modules.conf.  auto-negotiation fails.

Thanks,
Randy
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