It's like this: No matter what the kernel (2.6.28 to 2.6.32-rc7), the emagic a6|2m card just doesn't want to play along with the rest of the OS. Haven't got the foggiest, really - tried so many suggestions, all to no avail. This is the part of dmesg where things get hairy: [ 16.216094] EIP: 0060:[<f812c48c>] EFLAGS: 00010206 CPU: 0 [ 16.216099] EIP is at emi62_load_firmware+0x33c/0x740 [emi62] [ 16.216103] EAX: 0000015c EBX: 00000000 ECX: f735a1b0 EDX: c1c31c80 [ 16.216106] ESI: 0000015c EDI: f6155d5c EBP: f6183e18 ESP: f6183dd8 [ 16.216110] DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 00e0 SS: 0068 preempt:00000000 [ 16.216114] Process modprobe (pid: 1161, ti=f6182000 task=f735a1b0 task.ti=f6182000) [ 16.216117] Stack: [ 16.216119] 0000015c 000000a5 c023e26d f6183e28 f711a864 f61ed8c0 f6330340 f61fe380 [ 16.216126] <0> f711a800 00008fe0 f6155c00 f8234986 f6330340 f711a800 f6582fa0 f812d0e0 [ 16.216134] <0> f6183e38 f812c8d0 f812caa4 f812cab8 f6582fa0 f812c914 f64aa600 f64aa61c [ 16.216142] Call Trace: [ 16.216153] [<c023e26d>] ? sysfs_addrm_finish+0x3d/0xf0 [ 16.216162] [<f812c8d0>] ? emi62_probe+0x40/0x50 [emi62] [ 16.216171] [<c041a16a>] ? usb_probe_interface+0x8a/0x160 [ 16.216176] [<c023eb32>] ? sysfs_create_link+0x12/0x20 [ 16.216182] [<c03a7020>] ? really_probe+0x50/0x140 [ 16.216186] [<c0418e41>] ? usb_match_id+0x41/0x60 [ 16.216191] [<c03a7129>] ? driver_probe_device+0x19/0x20 [ 16.216195] [<c03a71a9>] ? __driver_attach+0x79/0x80 [ 16.216201] [<c03a6628>] ? bus_for_each_dev+0x48/0x70 [ 16.216205] [<c03a6ee9>] ? driver_attach+0x19/0x20 [ 16.216209] [<c03a7130>] ? __driver_attach+0x0/0x80 [ 16.216213] [<c03a687f>] ? bus_add_driver+0xbf/0x2c0 [ 16.216217] [<c03a7435>] ? driver_register+0x65/0x120 [ 16.216223] [<c0419754>] ? usb_register_driver+0x84/0x100 [ 16.216230] [<c019c512>] ? tracepoint_module_notify+0x22/0x30 [ 16.216236] [<f813001b>] ? emi62_init+0x1b/0x33 [emi62] [ 16.216242] [<c010112c>] ? do_one_initcall+0x2c/0x190 [ 16.216249] [<f8130000>] ? emi62_init+0x0/0x33 [emi62] [ 16.216256] [<c0178801>] ? sys_init_module+0xb1/0x1f0 [ 16.216262] [<c010333c>] ? syscall_call+0x7/0xb [ 16.216265] Code: 31 db 8b 4d e8 8b 55 e4 8b 45 e0 c7 44 24 04 a5 00 00 00 89 34 24 e8 94 fb ff ff 85 c0 0f 88 21 03 00 00 85 f6 0f 84 9c 00 00 00 <8b> 0b 31 f6 0f c9 85 db 89 4d e4 74 ca 0f b7 43 04 0f b7 d0 89 [ 16.216306] EIP: [<f812c48c>] emi62_load_firmware+0x33c/0x740 [emi62] SS:ESP 0068:f6183dd8 [ 16.216314] CR2: 0000000000000000 [ 16.216318] ---[ end trace 11b84c1d4378ede5 ]--- As for physical indicators (apart from the absence of sound / inaccessibility of the card) - well, the red led lights up instead of the green ones, and it stays lit. Under normal circumstances it is supposed to flash up for a few seconds before it is replaced by the green leds, which indicate that the firmware is loaded and the card is functional. What could possibly be wrong? So utterly exasperating. Mick, a headache and a half.