keyboard vs ethernet pcmcia conflict?

[jesse@spine.com]

Or at least that's my current theory..

I'm installing deb 2.0 (my first time with debian, I'm keen to switch
though, I've been using redhat and slackware) on a thinkpad 560e without a
cdrom.  The card is a motorola mariner ethernet/modem combo card.

The errors I'm getting are NOT consistant, and in between them I can ping
out from the failing laptop, so it's not 100% dead.

I've read everything I can find, and I understand that there are some
problems with pcmcia and hamm, but I believe my problem is different.



I got the base installation up and running, but then things got weird.

When I type on the keyboard, I get messages dumped to the screen saying:

loading device 'eth0'...

if I don't type, the messages don't appear.

/var/log/messages shows it loading as well:

loading device 'eth0'...
eth0: smc91c94: port 0x300, irq 3, 10baseT port, hw_addr 08:00:3E:1B:9E:7F
tty01 at 0x02f8 (irq=3) is a 16550A

So far so good (and identical to a similar thinkpad running slackware) but
less than a minute later the log shows:

tty01 unloaded

This process, starting with 'loading device' and ending with 'tty01
unloaded' repeats every few minutes (if I'm typing), and about once in 10
times it gives a separate error, like these:

eth0: Successful packet caused error interrupt?
smc91c92_cs: Yikes!  Bad chip signature!
(I got anther one about "hardware address" I think, but I've wiped the log
since)

Any suggestions appreciated!