too much work for irq17

[Frans Ketelaars]

On Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:45:45 -0600, Bruce Bales wrote:

> I have been using kubuntu 8.04 since 2008 and upgrading fairly often. 
> About a month ago I tried to upgrade and the machine thrashed around a
> while then started sending the message "serial8250: too much work for
> irq17" then said "changing to low-graphics mode".  It became useless. 
> dmesg was full of "serial8250: too much work for irq17"
> 
> Since support for 8.04 will end soon, I decided to install 10.04.  The
> install was slow and resulted in lots of "serial8250: too much work for
> irq17".  I got the same from installing 9.10 and 10.10.  I even tried
> ubuntu 10.04.
> 
> I reinstalled 8.04 and it seems to be allright, even after an apt-get
> update and upgrade.
> 
> A google on "too much work for irq17" found several others with the same
> problem, mostly with Dell 2400 series computers (like mine).  But no
> solutions.
> 
> Support for 8.04 runs out soon and I sure don't want to have to leave
> kubuntu.
> 
> Sure would appreciate some help on this. bruce

http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Fedora/2010-09/msg01158.html

So it seems removing the PCI modem card from your Dell 2400 might solve 
this.

If it does, please add [SOLVED] to the subject line.

Good luck!

    -Frans