NASLite Network Attached Storage

NASLite+ box #2 (an old Sony using a Netgear GA311 gigabit card shows continuous RX errors (sample follows):
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Network Interface
Davicom DM9102/DM9102A rev 49 at 0xf800, 00:80:AD:75:01:0D, IRQ 10.
Setting full-duplex based on MII#1 link partner capability of cde1.
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:80:AD:75:01:0D
inet addr:192.168.2.120 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:55 errors:304 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:44 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:5635 (5.5 KiB) TX bytes:5913 (5.7 KiB)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0xf800
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While my NASlite #1 (modern MOBO) with the same Netgear card shows no errors:
Network Interface
Identified chip type is 'RTL8169s/8110s'.
RTL8169 at 0xde800000, 00:0f:b5:8d:68:b0, IRQ 11
Auto-negotiation Enabled.
1000Mbps Full-duplex operation.
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:B5:8D:68:B0
inet addr:192.168.2.110 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11822 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:19345 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2959840 (2.8 MiB) TX bytes:26166159 (24.9 MiB)
Interrupt:11
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If you notice, NASLite Box #2 doesn't even report the same identifed chip type. Is the Netgear GA311 "too advanced" for the old Sony MOBO, or does NASLite+ not care and I have another problem?
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Thanks for any help.

My guess would be that you have an IRQ conflict on interrupt 10. My ethernet interrupt is 11 which matches the one that works for you. I've seen problems with older systems where interrupts were shared, but the drivers weren't written to share interrupts. Basically something else in the Sony is also using interrupt 10 and it confuses your ethernet card when it gets an interrupt for no reason.

Is there a way in the bios you can reserve interrupt 11 for the ethernet card?
Try taking out any other cards you don't need or disabling things like serial ports and sound cards in the bios.

You could also try switching the card to another slot. Sometimes the interrupts are hardwired to particular slots.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the ideas ... I'll give it a try and post the result.

I ended up changing the Ethernet card to fix the RX error problem. But for the record "smeyer's" ideas were on the money. IRQ 11 in the old Sony MOBO was dedicated wired to another PCI slot, IRQ 10 was in conflict with a serial port, and there was a bunch more stuff I could (and did) set to "not installed" in Bios (Serial/Paralell ports, Audio, etc). How all of that didn't fix the errors was beyond me ... but when in doubt, change it out.
Thanks smeyer ... great ideas ... and much appreciated.