NETDEV WATCHDOG transmit error

on a debian sarge installation, first with a 2.4 kernel (2.4.27-3-386) then a 2.6 kernel (2.6.8-11-amd64-generic and others) i kept getting netdev watchdog 'transmit timed out' errors. various postings i found suggested rebooting with some combination of the following options, none of which cured the problem:

acpi=off
noapic
pci=routeirq
lapic=off

i can't say i tried every combination and permutation, but i did a lot of reboots, which was especially annoying because the error sometimes doesn't show up for a few hours. if this was a home machine, i wouldn't mind too much, it would just be an occasional network hiccup. the machine is occasionally not accessible for 10 or 20 seconds. for a production machine it's unacceptable.
the error is from the fealnx ethernet driver. if you see a line like this in your syslog, you're using it:
Mar 9 07:00:32 localhost kernel: fealnx.c:v2.51 Nov-17-2001
after replacing the NIC with one that didn't use fealnx, the problem went away.

__________
#the error messages from syslog

#2.4 kernel
Mar 11 13:53:15 localhost kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Mar 11 13:53:15 localhost kernel: eth0: Transmit timed out, status 00000000, resetting...
Mar 11 13:53:15 localhost kernel:   Rx ring f52b9000:  80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000
Mar 11 13:53:15 localhost kernel:   Tx ring f6e0b000:  80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 0000

#2.6 kernel
Apr 27 23:30:42 localhost kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Apr 27 23:30:42 localhost kernel: eth0: Transmit timed out, status 00000000, resetting...
Apr 27 23:30:42 localhost kernel:   Rx ring 000001007e4a5000:  80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000
Apr 27 23:30:42 localhost kernel:   Tx ring 000001007c906000:  80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 80000000 0000

#two cards which caused the problem
0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: MYSON Technology Inc SURECOM EP-320X-S 100/10M Ethernet PCI Adapter
        Subsystem: Surecom Technology: Unknown device 1320

ADMtek Comet rev 17 at 0xe800, 00:50:BF:9E:F3:D2, IRQ 10.