Blacq,

          It sounds like you are having a different problem than we are (Cisco 3500's).  We first noticed our problems on the Dell clients, but the bad 3500's will fail with many other systems as well.  For example, they do not work well with Intel Pro/100 cards, Netgear switches, or other Cisco switches.   Cisco has been replacing the defective switches, and our problems go away.  They(Cisco) claim that the problem is not related to the revision number, but instead to the serial numbers of the units.  Again, I do not believe that we are experiencing the same problems that you have.  Our GX260's work fine except for the link flapping on some 3500's.

Agreed, as said the problem is similar, yet not equal to, fact remains somehow the handshaking seems faulty or the drivers maybe, tried in the meantime to change IOS on 3500XL and 2950 and CatOS on the 4006, no changes, then again you never know, still hope Dell can provide me a way to uncouple the IRQ for the NIC and  USB, will keep ya'll posted if anyone is interested. My wild guess is good ole pinguin power may pinpoint the problem to OS/driver related issues, in that case we'll get in touch with either Intel or Redmond. In any case replacing bout 3/4 of our switched network worldwide infrastructure is all but an option, placing an additional NIC might be though very costly to deploy, a distributed software update would be wonderful :) definately not giving up here yet... pulling out the sniffer now to see what kind of frames it does Xmit if it Xmits.

 

regardz

BLacq

Justin,

What kind of switches do you have?  The laptops have a different NIC(Broadcom) than the GX260's, so if you're having the same problem with both, there could be something wrong with the switches.

The switches are Cisco Catalyst 3500XL's with the A0 revision. Actually it's not that laptops that have the same problem, it is actually the docking stations that came with the laptops (the big ugly new ones that take up half your desk) that are having the same flapping occuring.

Upgraded the switch IOS to the latest version - no difference. I've convinced our organisation's networking burus to log a call with Cisco as I have covered all bases now:
- latest nic drivers
- latest switch IOS

We Have about 60 Dells here ranging from GX260s GX150's we also have Latitudes C600 and the new D400 .

Our switches are 3COM 4400SE We have problems with the GX 260's Diconnecting and reconnecting.

We Run Novell 4.11 ( yes I know its old ) but will be moving to Windows 2000 and doing away with Novell.

The GX150's seem to be fine, I know they have a different NIC I have downgraded one of the GX260's to Windows 2000 , to see if the the problem was with XP but Win2000 still has the same problem.

Anyway at least you know that this problem is not just with cisco hardware .Personally I think the problem is with the intel pro/1000MT chip itself.

I will be trying a 3com nic next and disable the Intel Pro/1000.

I feel Dell/Intel should address this problem

I think you are correct in that the issue is the Intel Pro/1000 MT. We have a real range of gear out there and have not had any problems with our switches. Suddenly we get 7 or so Dell machines with the Intel Pro/1000 MT and none of them can connect at 100Mb.

I've upgraded the switch IOS to the latest version and upgraded the network drivers to the latest version available from Intel yet the problem still exists.

But there is not much point in sticking in 100mb PCI nics as it seems to me that all Dell desktops and docking stations in the future will come with the Intel Pro/1000 MT network card.

mp,

you are right on target.  While Cisco admitted a a connectivity problem with their 3500 switch at 1Gb, it is a totally different issue than the Intel pro/1000MT onboard NIC.  As we found after numerous drivers configurations and updates and switches, the NIC still performed the same.  When we changed our clients NICS and disabled the onboard Intel Pro/1000MT's, we havent had a problem since (a month ago).  With 60 machines, that may be a tough rollout, however the peace of mind may be worth it.

Thanks,

Beta

mp,

you are right on target.  While Cisco admitted a a connectivity problem with their 3500 switch at 1Gb, it is a totally different issue than the Intel pro/1000MT onboard NIC.  As we found after numerous drivers configurations and updates and switches, the NIC still performed the same.  When we changed our clients NICS and disabled the onboard Intel Pro/1000MT's, we havent had a problem since (a month ago).  With 60 machines, that may be a tough rollout, however the peace of mind may be worth it.

Thanks,

Beta

Actually, funny you should have posted that. Just had a call today from our comms guys and Cisco is going to replace all our 3500XL's with the A0 motherboard revision with a newer revision.

 

Problem solved!

 

This problem thread sounds an awful lot like the one I posted concerning a new Dell GX270 running Win XP that has an Intel Pro/1000 MT nic and that I'm having trouble with when connected to a 3COM 10/100 hub.

Have you tried putting in the 10/100 nic yet and disabling the Intel nic?  What's the results.   This thread hasn't had any updates since 9/9/03 so I'm left wondering what's working and what's not.

 

 thanks,

  Larry

Has any tried this drivers from Intel to see if it helps this issue?

http://www.intel.com/support/network/adapter/1000/gmii.htm

 

Jim

Without a doubt, if you have an Optiplex with a Gigabit network card that is connecting to a Cisco Catalyst 3500XL (and one or two others I think) and the link is 'flapping' (constantly connecting, disconnecting) AND the switch has a motherboard revision of A0, then the only solution is to replace the switch with one with a newer motherboard revision.

 

Don't worry about drivers, configuration etc etc, the only solution is to replace the switch (believe me, I tried everything)

The lastest Bios revision does help a bit but there is still a problem with flapping.

I think the latest bios revision does mention something about fixes for the pro/1000 mt , check it out and try it .

We have 33 Dell Optiplex GX260 with the Intel Pro/1000 MT on-board NIC and 2 Dell Precision 350 with the same on-board card as well. We are having our flapping problems with 1G connections using Cisco Catalyst 3750G-24-TS-S switches. We have replaced switches, tried 3 different drivers and still cannot negotiate at 1G. We have to force a 100MB connection and bottleneck our network usage. Does anyone have any other suggestions or feedback on this issue? Has Dell or Intel recognized this as a known problem?