[vortex] 3c905 hanging when network load is high

[Markus Schaub]

Hi,

I experienced a problem with my 3c905c when transfering large/many
files over NFS/FTP to/from my server. All works well (sometimes up to
50MB) but suddenly the whole network transfer to/from the server
stops. Every 30-40 second some bits go through the line, so it is
possible to reactivate the network with a "ifconfig eth0 down;
ifconfig eth0 up" via ssh.

Now the Details:
Pentium 100 PC running Debian Potato on Kernel 2.4.13-ac7
(Same problem on other kernels 2.4.6/2.4.10-15)

100MBit on a hubbed network

00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX [Fast Etherlink] (rev 74)
        Subsystem: 3Com Corporation: Unknown device 1000
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 12
        I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
        Memory at 82000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

regards
 Markus