Another em0 watchdog timeout

[Michael Collette]

I realize there is a previous thread discussing this, but my symptoms
seem to be a little bit different.  Here's the stats...

FreeBSD 6.2-STABLE #1: Fri Apr 27 17:28:22 PDT 2007

em0 at pci13:0:0:  class=0x020000 card=0x108c15d9 chip=0x108c8086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'PRO/1000 PM'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet
em1 at pci14:0:0:  class=0x020000 card=0x109a15d9 chip=0x109a8086 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet

em0: <Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection Version - 6.2.9> port
0x5000-0x501f mem 0xea300000-0xea31ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci13
em0: Ethernet address: 00:30:48:5c:cc:84
em1: <Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection Version - 6.2.9> port
0x6000-0x601f mem 0xea400000-0xea41ffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci14
em1: Ethernet address: 00:30:48:5c:cc:85

I'm seeing the following entries in my messages log pop up about 2-4
times a day...

May 1 08:29:38 alpha kernel: em0: watchdog timeout -- resetting
May 1 08:29:38 alpha kernel: em0: link state changed to DOWN
May 1 08:29:41 alpha kernel: em0: link state changed to UP

I've gone and added the DEVICE_POLLING option in the kernel, but this
doesn't seem to help.  The problem only seems to happen during the
hours that my users would be hitting this box, so it really gets
noticed when those 3 seconds go by.  And yes, it's almost always a 3
second drop on the interface.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening?  I saw
mention of a firmware update I might try, but haven't been able to
locate the file in question.

Thanks,
-- 
"When you come to a fork in the road....Take it"
- Yogi Berra