1 Problem Statement Questionnaire

Its critical to clearly understand and describe the behavior, characteristics, and patterns of the encountered problem. To ensure that the problem is clearly understood and that any support engineers have the necessary information to provide fast assistance, make sure the following questions are clearly answered:

Note: If submitting a support case through Microchip’s support portal, include these questions and answers in the support case details. Clearly framing the issue up front is the best way to minimize time to problem resolution.
Table 1-1. Problem Statement Questionnaire
QuestionAnswer
Describe your problem and how it is observed:
When (or how frequently) does this issue present itself?
Does the issue happen on all of the systems or just an isolated few?
Do you observe any failure patterns (i.e.: “failure always happens when I do X”)?
Does this result in a hard failure, or is the system able to recovery and resume operation without user action?

If user action is required to recover the system after the issue happens, what can recover it?

  • Power Cycle
  • Toggle RST#
  • Reset MAC Interface
  • Link down/ Link Up command
  • Other?

What are the details of the MAC system(s) that this issue is observed on?

  • Operating System version
  • Processor
  • Board Support Package (if used)
  • Other Relevant info
What are the details of the Link partner system(s) that this issue is observed on?
  • One Link partner in particular?
  • Multiple Link partners?
  • Any particular Speed?
  • Any particular cable length?
What are the details of the KSZ8081MNX configuration (register settings, when the issue is observed)?
Does the issue occur with Microchip’s EVB of the same or similar product?
If using Linux: try another LTS kernel version. Does failure persist (also, record which kernel(s) you tried)?