Comment 15 for bug 150515

Same problem here, the issue is triggered by a high CPU load. ksoftirqd eats around 27% of CPU time.
Running hardy kernel linux-image-2.6.24-5-server.
powertop shows "et131x_open (et131x_error_timer_handler)" on top of the list.
Turning down the network interface brings the load back to normal; I tried to rmmod and modprobe et131x but as soon as the network is up the load raises up again.
Unfortunately i can't use the kernel boot param "nohz=off" since it deteriorates the quality of video playback.