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Re: Update on e1000 troubles (over-heating!)

To: Dave Hansen <haveblue@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Update on e1000 troubles (over-heating!)
From: Ben Greear <greearb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 00:07:37 -0700
Cc: "Feldman, Scott" <scott.feldman@xxxxxxxxx>, linux-kernel <linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "'netdev@xxxxxxxxxxx'" <netdev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Organization: Candela Technologies
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Dave Hansen wrote:


I get some strange e1000 failures too. It usually involves the watchdog kicking them back into order, but sometimes they'll stay offline for a while. Heat would explain it, though, because it only happens when I'm actually using the cards for a benchmark. I figured that it was either my cables, or a shoddy switch.

The new dual-port e1000 that I have doesn't seem to have this problem, even though I'm running 4 times more traffic than the singles that I had.

That was exactly the behaviour I noticed.  I believe it's because when you
run two side-by-side, they cook each other (I'm assuming you didn't run
2 2-ports side-by-side)

Try strapping a fan on them somehow and I bet all your troubles go
away (and maybe your .ibm email will shame Intel into putting heat-sinks
and/or small fans on their NICs... ;)

(I ran two Netgear 302t NICs (tigon-3) side-by-side for 4 days at max speed, 
and they
 didn't drop a single packet, even though their heat-sinks were too hot to
 touch!)

Ben

--
Ben Greear <greearb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear



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