I'm seeing the issue described below on my Dell PowerEdge 2400 running qa0401, kernel 2.4.2-0.1.49-i686smp. Perhaps it's not restricted to VIA? System has 2x933MHz, 1GB RAM. List: linux-kernel Subject: Re: "clock timer configuration lost" error? From: Alan Cox <alan.org.uk> Date: 2001-02-26 14:57:47 > Anyone have a clue about the 'probable hdw bug' messages? No disk > activity to speak of, no other symptoms and/or messages. Small number of VIA 686 boxes randomly jump from 100Hz back to the DOS 18Hz timeout. We dont know if its hardware or maybe APM bios bugs. The kernel puts the timer back and life appears happy again
Somehow serverworks machines seem to trigger the message. It's harmless and the print-priority has been reduced (eg KERN_DEBUG) for newer kernels. Severworks either has a similar flaw, or a known problem in the code triggers. The test is slightly inaccurate as there is a small windows during "counter overflow" where the detection goes wrong. Setting the clock to 100Hz is harmless if it is already 100Hz so there is no harm done. We have reduced the priority of the printk to below "user visible" -> resolved