Ok, my guess is something like this: 1. At the end of smtc_distribute_timer, nextstamp is valid and has already passed so we goto repeat. 2. Nothing updates nextstamp (only updated if the timeout is in the future And we just decided it is in the past) 3. At the end nextstamp still has the same value so it is still valid and in the past. 4. This repeats until read_c0_count has a value which causes nextstamp to be in the future. One possible patch that seams to solve it for me below. This is probably not the correct solution so I'll need help from the SMTC experts to review it and come up with the correct solution. Best Regards /Mikael Index: cevt-smtc.c =================================================================== RCS file: /usr/local/cvs/linux/os/linux-2.6/arch/mips/kernel/cevt-smtc.c,v retrieving revision 1.2 diff -u -r1.2 cevt-smtc.c --- cevt-smtc.c 2 Sep 2009 10:07:51 -0000 1.2 +++ cevt-smtc.c 10 Nov 2009 11:40:31 -0000 @@ -223,8 +223,10 @@ write_c0_compare(nextstamp); ehb(); if ((nextstamp - (unsigned long)read_c0_count()) - > (unsigned long)LONG_MAX) + > (unsigned long)LONG_MAX) { + nextstamp = 0L; goto repeat; + } } }