Intel E1000/MT driver won't load with 2.4.20 (smp) kernel?

I'm trying to replace a 100bT NIC (Intel PRO/100) with a gigabit
card (Intel PRO/1000MT). The driver (both the stock version
[5.0.43-k1] and Intel's latest/greatest [5.5.4] refuse to
load because of an EEPROM checksum error (checksum is
expected to be BABA, but is FFC0 instead). This happens with
two different 1000/MT cards (both purchased same time/place)...

Has anyone else seen this? Got a fix? It this really likely
to be *two* bad EEPROMs?

I did some googling and found one suggestion to simply
disable the checksum validation in the driver. That nicely
removes the above error - but the driver still won't load.

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 13:58:28 -0700, Steve Wampler wrote:

> I'm trying to replace a 100bT NIC (Intel PRO/100) with a gigabit
> card (Intel PRO/1000MT). The driver (both the stock version
> [5.0.43-k1] and Intel's latest/greatest [5.5.4] refuse to
> load because of an EEPROM checksum error (checksum is
> expected to be BABA, but is FFC0 instead). This happens with
> two different 1000/MT cards (both purchased same time/place)...
>
> Has anyone else seen this? Got a fix? It this really likely
> to be *two* bad EEPROMs?

To answer my own question. Yes, apparently is is possible
to be *two* bad EEPROMs. A 3rd Intel PRO/1000MT worked
just fine.