[lug] laptop ethernet issues

[Chris Riddoch]

Hi, everyone.

Got a recurring problem that's been happening for as long as I've had
a certain pcmcia ethernet card, and it's bad enough that I need to
figure out how to fix it.

The card is a US Robotics Megahertz 33.6 modem and 10Mbps ethernet.
Uses the smc91c92_cs module, from Debian's stable pcmcia-cs package,
3.1.20-2.

On loading the card, syslog says:
Jan 19 17:28:18 laptop kernel: eth0: flipped to 10baseT

After about 10 to 15 minutes of use, (growing more frequent with time),
syslog says:

Jan 19 17:31:31 laptop kernel: eth0: flipped to 10base2
Jan 19 17:31:30 laptop kernel: eth0: lost link beat

Except that there's no cable problems, and it's certainly *not*
10base2. Same cable works perfect on my desktop.  And it's not the
dongle, a new one had the same problem.  I've pulled the card out
after this happens, and it's nice and warm, but still holdable.  Would
overheating cause this problem?  After only 10 minutes of very light
use?

The modem on it never has any problems.

Is the card toast?  The driver?  I'm a little short on ways to test
what's wrong, and money to buy a new one, unless someone can recommend
something cheap but functional that plays nice with Linux...

--
Chris Riddoch
socket at peakpeak.com