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User-Agent: Mozilla/4.76 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.2-2 i686)

Description of problem:
I am using Dell Inspiron 5000e. I have both windows and RedHat 7.1 linux on
it.
I upgraded my BIOS with the latest greatest (?) release of BIOS A06 from
Dell support site. And then my problem started. From what I see, Winodows
works fine. But Linux does not. I reinstalled linux after BIOS upgrade, but
it did not help. The symptoms are that my keyboard often freezes totally.
There is nothing I can type, CTL/ALT/DEL does not work either.
The only way to avoid brutal power down with the button is to do
Fn/Suspend, and then push the power button to wake it up. But then
it freezes again.
I get it both on the console, and also after I start
KDE. The mouse work, other things seem to work, but the keyboard is hosed
down.
While I cannot be 100% sure, it seems like I got this behaviour after
upgrading the BIOS to A06. I did everything by the book, and beside...
I do not have this problem with Windows 98 SE which came installed with
my Dell.


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot
2. Type four (4) characters
3.  Fn/Suspend --> Power
4. Type four (4) characters
  etc

	

Actual Results:  got res[1800:187f] for resource 0 of PCI device 115d:0003
got res[10800800:108007ff] for resource 1 of PCI device 115d:0003
got res[10800800:10800fff] for resource 2 of PCI device 115d:0003
got res[10400000:10403fff] for resource 6 of PCI device 115d:0003
PCI: Enabling device 02.00.0 (0000 -> 0003)
got res[1880:1887] for resource 0 of PCI device 115d:0103
got res[10801000:108017ff] for resource 1 of PCI device 115d:0003
got res[10801000:10801fff] for resource 2 of PCI device 115d:0003
got res[10404000:10407fff] for resource 6 of PCI device 115d:0003
PCI Enabling device 02.00.1 (0000 -> 0003)
PCI Setting latency timer of device 02.00.0 to 64
spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7




Expected Results:  Normal typing...

Additional info:

The problem was quite reproducible. It gets me both in the console mode
and in the KDE X-window mode. After typing 4 (four) characters
my keyboard was frozed, and I had to do Fn/Suspend->Power dance to type
next four characters. A lot of work to type: "shut" "down" " -h " "now"
This is what spews to the console.


Below are few thinsg about this which I found on the WEB. I do not even
try to understand it.

http://support.intel.com/support/controllers/peripheral/7507.htm
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-hardware@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu/msg02524.h\tml
http://faqs.jmas.co.jp/FAQs/386bsd-faq/part4

In the last document I found:
        In spite of the number of times this has come up (and people have
        even referenced this section) there are still at least two
        questions on the net about this.  A memorable one was a guy who
        was just vehement that the stray int 7 was what was keeping his
        system from booting.  In fact, he went so far as to say that this
       document was practically worthless because I didn't tell him how
        to fix it.  Of course, once he configured his hard drive controller
        so that it was on the right interrupt, his booting problem went
	away.  I have said it before and I will say it again.  For MOST
	users they do not pose a real threat to your operations.
        I have heard of three people (out of at least 2000) that have
        actually have problems so bad that they couldn't proceed.  They
	bought new computers, and the problem went away.

        These stray interrupts are caused by something in the PC.
        I have yet to see a convincing explanation of precisely what,
        but they are definitely caused by something.  There are four
	ways to deal with this problem.

        1)  Ignore them.  They are spurious and do not effect the
        operation of your computer.

        2)  Implement the lpt driver.  This way, the driver traps
        (the lpt driver expects IRQ 7) and then quietly discards them.
        That is why when folks implement the lpt driver the 'problem'
        goes away.  The computer is taught how to ignore them.

	3)  Do what the original 386bsd code did.  Comment out the
	diagnostic and associated code that tries to deal with them so
        you don't see the error message.

	4)  Buy a new computer that doesn't cause this problem.   It is a
	known hardware problem with the 8259 being reset incorrectly in
        hardware.

=============

I do not want to buy the new computer, and I therefore I installed the
printer driver on my laptop (though I do not have any printer attached)
and this HELPED. I could say that problem is solved. But is it?

Jan