p54pci randomly fails to load on boot

We're using miniPCI WiFi cards in our mini-PC's:
00:02.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] (rev 01)

OS is Debian Lenny with 'custom' kernel (3.2.24 from kernel.org).

The WiFi cards usually work without problems except that from time to time they don't start during the boot up process. Here's what I found in logs:

Nov  7 05:12:24 hostname kernel: [   21.323335] ieee80211 phy0: FW rev 2.13.25.0 - Softmac protocol 5.9
Nov  7 05:12:24 hostname kernel: [   21.323435] ieee80211 phy0: cryptographic accelerator WEP:YES, TKIP:YES, CCMP:YES
Nov  7 05:12:24 hostname kernel: [   22.567542] ieee80211 phy0: Cannot boot firmware!
Nov  7 05:12:24 hostname kernel: [   22.567843] p54pci: probe of 0000:00:02.0 failed with error -110

Anybody got an idea why firmware might not have loaded (and did without any changes after next reboot 24hrs later)?
Is this a hardware problem with WiFi card (we had few that didn't work at all 'out of the box')? Maybe a problem with 'hard disk' (we are using Compact Flash cards)?

regards,
Piotr Kaczorek

-110 is TIMEDOUT and the firmware simply failed to respond "in time". You could try to increase the timeout [see attached patch] or give the firmware a second chance.

No, I don't think that your harddisk replacement (compact flash cards) would cause such a problem. If you can, try the patch and clean up the dust (connectors and on the card itself - at least this works for my pcmcia cards).

About the cards which "refused" to work: Do you know if these were even recognized by the system [lspci -vvnn]?

BTW: What happens if you try to reload the module after it failed the first time? Does it suddenly work? Or do you have to do a warm/cold reboot/restart to get it working again?

Regards,
Chr
---

index b439079..e7a403d 100644
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ static int p54p_upload_firmware(struct ieee80211_hw *dev)
 	udelay(10);
 
 	/* wait for the firmware to boot properly */
-	mdelay(100);
+	mdelay(200);
 
 	return 0;
 }