i8253 count too high! resetting..

[Roger Luethi]

I'm getting my sys log filled with "i8253 count too high! resetting.." in
2.4.21-pre1.

The same happened in 2.2.19 with the kernel suggesting the culprit was a
VIA686a -- which it wasn't, the chipset's ALi. The trigger differs only
so slightly: 2.2.19 tests for
count > LATCH-1
whereas 2.4.21-pre1 checks
count > LATCH

The rate is high enough to be quite annoying -- here's a syslog snippet:

Dec 12 14:02:33 k3 kernel: i8253 count too high! resetting..
Dec 12 14:05:23 k3 kernel: i8253 count too high! resetting..
Dec 12 14:05:51 k3 kernel: i8253 count too high! resetting..
Dec 12 14:06:29 k3 kernel: i8253 count too high! resetting..
Dec 12 14:07:30 k3 kernel: i8253 count too high! resetting..

FWIW the board (an Asus A7A266) has worked reasonably well for over a year
and I hadn't gotten the impression so far that the timer needs fixing
desperately.

Roger