2004-01-25 02:42:46

by Tomas Ogren

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

Hello.

I'm not exactly sure what caused this or if it's reproducable, but
here's my story anyway.

I have an ASUS A7V8X with onboard Broadcom 4401 (Rev 01) 10/100 and I've
been running 2.4.x (2.4.21) for a long time now with Broadcoms bcm4400
driver (v2.0.2) which has worked just fine. Now I decided to try 2.6 and
installed 2.6.2-rc1-bk2 with the b44 driver that comes with the kernel.
While doing some tests I noticed that I got really crappy performance
(3-4MB/s) while sending, but full throughput (~11MB/s) while receiving.

So I figured that it could be the shipped driver.. Downloaded bcm4400
v3.0.7 which has 2.6 support and installed it. Didn't make stuff go
faster. So I thought I'd boot into 2.4.25pre6 and see how it behaves
under a 2.4 kernel with the latest bcm4400 driver. The 2.4.25pre6 I had
compiled includes the b44 driver. I booted it up and then I got a bunch
of the following:
"eth0: b44: BUG! Timeout waiting for bit 80000000 of register 428 to
clear."
followed by:
"eth0: Link is down."

After that, I have not been able to get link (neither see it through
Linux/WinXP or the physical LED). I have tried multiple cables and my
laptop is perfectly happy with all of them, but the broadcom thingie
seems not. The switch doesn't see link either.

The actual chip seems to be alive, it responds to PCI stuff... it can be
initialized and all but I can't get link.

Not sure what you can do with this information, but I can probably not
do anything more with this NIC at least..

CC me for any replies, please.

/Tomas
--
Tomas ?gren, [email protected], http://www.ing.umu.se/~stric/
|- Student at Computing Science, University of Ume?
`- Sysadmin at {cs,ing,acc}.umu.se


2004-01-25 08:37:39

by Andrew Walrond

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

On Sunday 25 Jan 2004 2:42 am, Tomas Ogren wrote:
>
> Not sure what you can do with this information, but I can probably not
> do anything more with this NIC at least..
>
Just a thought, but did you try reseting the switch, or trying another port on
the switch?

Also, you don't seem to have gone back to a last known good configuration
(unless WinXP covers this?)

Andrew Walrond

2004-01-25 13:15:11

by Tomas Ogren

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

On 25 January, 2004 - Andrew Walrond sent me these 0,4K bytes:

> On Sunday 25 Jan 2004 2:42 am, Tomas Ogren wrote:
> >
> > Not sure what you can do with this information, but I can probably not
> > do anything more with this NIC at least..
> >
> Just a thought, but did you try reseting the switch, or trying another port on
> the switch?

I have, no dice.

> Also, you don't seem to have gone back to a last known good configuration
> (unless WinXP covers this?)

I have, no dice.

It used to light up the link led while in BIOS etc.. it doesn't
anymore..

/Tomas
--
Tomas ?gren, [email protected], http://www.ing.umu.se/~stric/
|- Student at Computing Science, University of Ume?
`- Sysadmin at {cs,ing,acc}.umu.se

2004-01-26 09:09:10

by Pavel Machek

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

Hi!

> After that, I have not been able to get link (neither see it through
> Linux/WinXP or the physical LED). I have tried multiple cables and my
> laptop is perfectly happy with all of them, but the broadcom thingie
> seems not. The switch doesn't see link either.

Try to physically unplug machine from AC for a while.
Pavel
--
When do you have a heart between your knees?
[Johanka's followup: and *two* hearts?]

2004-01-26 09:56:21

by Vojtech Pavlik

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 10:48:15AM +0100, Tomas Ogren wrote:
> On 26 January, 2004 - Pavel Machek sent me these 0,4K bytes:
>
> > Hi!
> >
> > > After that, I have not been able to get link (neither see it through
> > > Linux/WinXP or the physical LED). I have tried multiple cables and my
> > > laptop is perfectly happy with all of them, but the broadcom thingie
> > > seems not. The switch doesn't see link either.
> >
> > Try to physically unplug machine from AC for a while.
>
> Ah, thank you! Just turning the power switch off didn't help.. I suppose
> it's kept alive (for some values of alive ;) for WOL and such..

I think you meant undead in your case. ;)

> Now it's working again.

--
Vojtech Pavlik
SuSE Labs, SuSE CR

2004-01-26 09:48:21

by Tomas Ogren

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

On 26 January, 2004 - Pavel Machek sent me these 0,4K bytes:

> Hi!
>
> > After that, I have not been able to get link (neither see it through
> > Linux/WinXP or the physical LED). I have tried multiple cables and my
> > laptop is perfectly happy with all of them, but the broadcom thingie
> > seems not. The switch doesn't see link either.
>
> Try to physically unplug machine from AC for a while.

Ah, thank you! Just turning the power switch off didn't help.. I suppose
it's kept alive (for some values of alive ;) for WOL and such..

Now it's working again.

/Tomas
--
Tomas ?gren, [email protected], http://www.ing.umu.se/~stric/
|- Student at Computing Science, University of Ume?
`- Sysadmin at {cs,ing,acc}.umu.se

2004-01-26 12:30:26

by Jamie Lokier

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

Tomas Ogren wrote:
> On 26 January, 2004 - Pavel Machek sent me these 0,4K bytes:
> > > After that, I have not been able to get link (neither see it through
> > > Linux/WinXP or the physical LED). I have tried multiple cables and my
> > > laptop is perfectly happy with all of them, but the broadcom thingie
> > > seems not. The switch doesn't see link either.
> >
> > Try to physically unplug machine from AC for a while.
>
> Ah, thank you! Just turning the power switch off didn't help.. I suppose
> it's kept alive (for some values of alive ;) for WOL and such..

I was startled when I bought a power meter to find that my computers
and even some monitors consume power when switched off. I don't mean
"soft" off - even with the mechanical switch in the off position they
still consume significant power.

My AMD box consumes about 15W of power when the mechanical switch on
its power supply is off. About 35W when the mechanical switch is on
but the computer is in the "soft off" state (i.e. what you get when
you ask it to turn itself off).

-- Jamie

2004-01-26 23:34:48

by Andrew Walrond

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Fried the onboard Broadcom 4401 network...

On Monday 26 Jan 2004 12:30 pm, Jamie Lokier wrote:
>
> I was startled when I bought a power meter to find that my computers
> and even some monitors consume power when switched off. I don't mean
> "soft" off - even with the mechanical switch in the off position they
> still consume significant power.
>
> My AMD box consumes about 15W of power when the mechanical switch on
> its power supply is off. About 35W when the mechanical switch is on
> but the computer is in the "soft off" state (i.e. what you get when
> you ask it to turn itself off).
>

I've got some dual xeon machines where the psu's get too hot to touch when
switched _off_! Thankfully they run cool when switched on (and the fan is
running) I've always assumed some sort of fault, but maybe not...

Andrew Walrond