ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected.

[Robert Klikics]

Sometimes (I still don't know why) the ipw3945 hangs and I need to reboot my Dell Latitude D820!
It seems this bug is there since a while because I found somne other reports with previous version ...

Hope it'll be fixed soon or anybody knows a workaround? Today it needed 5 reboots, thats annoying ...

Here the "dmesg" - output:

[ 1688.596000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[ 1688.596000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000005 cmd TX (0x1C) seq 0x007A ser 0x004A0000
[ 1690.588000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
[ 1690.868000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
[ 2084.760000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[ 2084.764000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
[ 2085.040000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
[ 2537.116000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[ 2537.116000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000005 cmd TX (0x1C) seq 0x0011 ser 0x004A0000
[ 2539.108000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
[ 2539.484000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
[ 3707.156000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[ 3707.156000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000005 cmd TX (0x1C) seq 0x00A9 ser 0x004A0000
[ 3707.160000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
[ 3707.440000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
[ 4736.320000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[ 4736.320000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000005 cmd TX (0x1C) seq 0x009D ser 0x004A0000
[ 4738.316000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
[ 4738.688000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
[ 4756.760000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[ 4756.760000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000005 cmd TX (0x1C) seq 0x00EA ser 0x004A0000
[ 4756.764000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
[ 4757.040000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
[ 7665.032000] SMB connection re-established (-5)
[10353.980000] SMB connection re-established (-5)
[10729.380000] ipw3945: Error sending cmd #07 to daemon: time out after 500ms.
[10730.980000] ipw3945: Error sending SCAN_ABORT_CMD: time out after 500ms.
[10731.480000] ipw3945: Error sending cmd #08 to daemon: time out after 500ms.
[10731.980000] ipw3945: Error sending ADD_STA: time out after 500ms.
[10732.480000] ipw3945: Error sending SCAN_ABORT_CMD: time out after 500ms.
[10732.480000] ------------[ cut here ]------------

Regards,
Robert

[Stefano Pedretti (stefano-pedretti)]

Thank you for the report.

Can you relate the bug to the battery on line power?
Which kind of wireless network are you trying to associate with? WEP, WPA, WPA Enterprise?

Bye

[Robert Klikics (robert-klikics)]

Hi,

it is a WEP network and in most cases it does work... but sometims, you know.
I don't think it's related to des on line power, but in all cases the notebook was plugged to the power outlet.

Regards,
Robert

[Stefano Pedretti (stefano-pedretti)]

I have the same problem, but i can relate it with conditions:
the trouble appears often when i am in battery and rarely when i'm plugged to the line power.

The trouble appears when there is lot of wifi traffic, differents networks.

I hope intel move about.

Regards

Stefano

[Stefano Pedretti (stefano-pedretti)]

I use a Sony Vaio VGN-FE41S

Linux restricted modules 2.6.20.5-16.29 (last one)

[Wesley Stessens (wesley)]

I experience the same problem with the Gutsy 2.6.22-10-generic kernel.
It is very annoying.

It also seems to happen in combination with my screen going wild for a second
(weird black bars showing everywhere, sometimes the machine hangs for a while...)
when I am running compiz-fusion.

However, the ipw3945 problem also occurs when not running compiz-fusion.

[Mathieu Marquer (slasher-fun)]

The problem appeared today for me. I'm now connected at the University (IEEE8021X) and I have a lot of hangs up and a lot of messages like this in dmesg :
[ 508.340000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
[ 508.812000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[ 508.812000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000005 cmd LEDS_CMD (0x48) seq 0x040A ser 0x004A0000
[ 509.808000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.

Using Ubuntu Feisty i386 (2.6.20-16), up-to-date.

[Mathieu Marquer (slasher-fun)]

It seems that the problem comes from the access point since two friends have also connexion problems using Windows XP. The only thing to fix for that bug would be preventing the computer to stutter...

[Wesley Stessens (wesley)]

Okay, that also explains why it happens only when my graphics card is locking up.

So to summarise, this is my case:

My graphics card is broken (obviously a hardware defect) and it makes my computer hang sometimes for a short period of time.
When my computer hangs for some time the wireless connection crashes and the Microcode SW error appears.

So these are two different problems in my case, but one of the problems (nvidia graphics card hangs)
causes the second problem (ipw3945 error) to appear.

[goliash (goliash)]

It happens also to me. Most of the time everything is OK but it starts to stutter when I am trying to download bigger speed (4 Mb/s and more). It stutters few seconds, TCP connections are interrupted for the moment and then network comes back. It happend with Feisty and also now with Gutsy.

[177370.820000] ipw3945: XXXL we have skipped command
[177370.820000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
[177370.820000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000001 cmd DAEMON (0xDD) seq 0x8CE8 ser 0x00DD0000
[177372.812000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
[177374.184000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)

[Priit Tamboom (priit-tamboom)]

I have got quite same problem after start using Icepodder (what opens many torrent connections).

@Westley Stessens: I suspect it is vice versa, I have ati x1400 and it hangs for some seconds when pc getting ipw3945 Microcode SW errors. However those hangs goes away when I turn wireless off.

I started the same issue under dell forum as well:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=264376#M264376

[Mikael Nilsson (mini)]

I also see this, with the graphics issues. It happens on heavy networking.

Dell XPS M1710, Nvidia Go 7900GTX

[Mikael Nilsson (mini)]

Dec 8 19:39:37 daneel kernel: [27242.764000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
Dec 8 19:39:38 daneel NetworkManager: <WARN> nm_device_802_11_wireless_get_essid(): error getting ESSID for device eth1: Resource temporarily unavailable
Dec 8 19:39:40 daneel kernel: [27243.760000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
Dec 8 19:39:40 daneel kernel: [27245.128000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)

[Dwight Shepherd (dwight-shepherd)]

Dec 10 14:45:26 podcast kernel: [ 19.320000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (11 802.11bg channels, 13 802.11a channels)
Dec 10 14:45:26 podcast kernel: [ 19.736000] ipw3945: Microcode SW error detected. Restarting.
Dec 10 14:45:26 podcast kernel: [ 19.736000] ipw3945: Error Reply type 0x00000005 cmd LEDS_CMD (0x48) seq 0x0408 ser 0x004A0000
Dec 10 14:45:26 podcast kernel: [ 19.736000] ipw3945: Can't stop Rx DMA.
Dec 10 14:45:26 podcast kernel: [ 21.108000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (11 802.11bg channels, 13 802.11a channels)

I have a HP dv9207us, Nvidia Go 7600

[Dwight Shepherd (dwight-shepherd)]

Info file about my system is attached

[Priit Tamboom (priit-tamboom)]

My wireless problem has solved for now when switched to newer module iwl3945.

Howto:
http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_7.10/Issues/ipw3945_Wireless_Network_Module_Issues

[Robert Klikics (robert-klikics)]

SInce "2.6.22-14-generic" the problem didn't appear again on my machine ... I hope it's finally fixed.

[Wesley Stessens (wesley)]

I don't know if it's because I decided to install NVidia manually or not, but after I did that, everything ran smoothly. The NVidia driver did not freak out anymore, and as a result the ipw3945 driver keeps working stable too. And though I might still experience problems during heavy transfer, I haven't experienced it so far, and it's a non-issue, because the iwl3945 driver will replace the ipw3945 driver in the future.

[Termina (termina)]

To fix this issue, I suggest:

In /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist add "blacklist ipw3945"

In /etc/modules add "iwl3945"

Reboot, and everything should work.

[Andres Mujica (andres.mujica)]

This is a duplicate of Bug #109887 . Please provide any further comments to this bug. Thanks

[pearcec (christian-pearcec)]

Is this really a duplicate, I see in Bug #109887 that the error messages are different. Or is it considered a dup because we are trying to ditch ipw3945?

[pearcec (christian-pearcec)]

In fact I get the same error message wiht iwl3945.