[driverloader] Re: [LinuxR3000] Broadcom 54g + FC3 + 1.5 G = 100%

[Prarit Bhargava]

eherget at bellsouth.net wrote:

>Hi Prarit,
>
>I have also reported this problem a few weeks ago.  I have a HP Pavilion zv5340us laptop with Broadcom 54g card.  In my case, all worked fine with 500MB of memory (2x256MB memory modules), but I got the 100%CPU usage issue when I replaced one 256MB module with a 1GB memory module.  I've even tried moving the 1GB module to the 2nd memory slot (requires some dis/reassembly of the laptop to get to it under the keyboard).
>  
>
Wow ... man, you were really trying to get this thing goin', huh? :)

>You mentioned that you think its a problem with the driver itself.  That may be a possibility, as I expect the 64-bit Broadcom driver to be in some sort of pre-release state.  And HP likely modifies the driver for its use.  For example, there's a lighted button above my keyboard to turn the wireless feature on and off.  In 32-bit windows using drivers provided by HP, the light is on constant when the wireless device is on.  In 64-bit windows with the same driver we're using in driverloader, the light only flickers as data is being tranmitted/received.  I suspect (hope) HP will modify this once they officially support 64-bit Windows to have the light stay on constant when the wireless feature is on.
>  
>
Yeah ... I've heard a few other people being confused by this (as I was) 
new behaviour of the lights with the Broadcom driver.  The "light" was 
off, but in fact the adapter was on :).

>In any case, there are other indications that the problem may not be in the driver.  Under earlier versions of the linux kernel (2.6.8-24.11 - from updated SuSE 9.1), my system would lockup completely instead of just hogging the CPU.  I had to hard cycle the laptop to recover.  
>
This happens to me when using ndiswrapper with FC3's 2.6.9 and 2.6.10 
kernel versions.  I had to push the adapter's power button (to power off 
the adapter) to rescue the system.

>In addition, the driver works fine under 64-bit Windows (the latest beta version available at M$ website) with all of my different memory configs.
>
>I was originally thinking the issue might have something to do with unequal memory modules in the 2 memory slots and some interaction between the linux kernel and the memory hardware/controller.  However, if you've got 2GB of memory, I assume you have equal (1GB each) memory modules in the 2 slots.
>
>  
>
I think someone else had the 2 GB :) ... I have 1.5 ...

>Since the behavior is different between linux kernel versions <= 2.6.8-24.11 vs. >= 2.6.10xxx, at least part of the problem may lie with the kernel itself.  There could even be some hardware issues (timing, BIOS, etc) involved.
>
>Eric
>
>
>  
>
>>From: Prarit Bhargava <prarit at sgi.com>
>>Date: 2005/03/24 Thu AM 10:46:01 EST
>>To: "Linux on AMD64 laptops (Compaq R3000 and HP zv5000)" <linuxr3000 at lists.pcxperience.com>, 
>>	driverloader at lists.linuxant.com
>>Subject: [driverloader] Re: [LinuxR3000] Broadcom 54g + FC3 + 1.5 G = 100%
>>	CPU usage?
>>
>>Good point.  The fact that it's happening both on ndiswrapper and 
>>Linuxant's driverloader indicates an issue with the driver itself.
>>
>>Also, another thought occurs to me .... My laptop is BRAND NEW (1 week 
>>old).  They ship these things with up to 2 G memory ... wouldn't you 
>>think that HP/Compaq would have seen this problem already? 
>>
>>P.
>>
>>P. Scott DeVos wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Assuming the problem isn't with the driver itself...
>>>      
>>>
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>