hm2/hm2_7i96s.0: watchdog has bit! (set the .has-bit pin to false to resume)

i have been fighting with this issue for over six months. it doesn't matter what i do, this issue keeps coming back. PCW advised me to contact Mesa, and i did, but they want to charge shipping fees and other fees to look at this board and it may not even need anything done to it by them. i think i would just be throwing more money away and i would like to exhaust ALL my options before i send it back to them. not to mention the snarky attitude you get after a week of the run around. so i will conserve sending it back as a last, last resort. the attitude they have about issues with these boards are its all your fault and there is no way the board can be faulty. so i'm turning to the good people on this site to see if we can come up with a solution before i send it back to Mesa. 

as stated in the description, im getting the error hm2/hm2_7i96s.0: watchdog has bit! (set the .has-bit pin to false to resume)
also, Unexpected realtime delay on task ) with period 1000000. i am also getting an error hm2/hm2_7i96s.0: stepgen.04. maxvel is too big for current step timings & position-scale. clipping to max possible.

now i know the last error is not an issue at the moment, but the watchdog error (error plus red light on, on the 7i96s) i followed the instuctions on this link docs.google.com/document/d/1jeV_4VKzVmOI...m1x7oiw8VcLFdiY/edit. when i install the dkms drivers for the realtek ethernet adapter, i lose my network. as it is right now, i have a fresh install of Debian trixie and i installed linuxcnc and configured the network. Axis starts up and i can home but after a few minutes, i get the watchdog error (red light on, on the mesa 7i96s along with error in description).

what else ive done is outlined in the following links. forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...-connection-problems. and forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-q...oint-following-error. i have also tried a couple different power supplies to make sure the board is getting enough power.
can't we flash firmware on this board? i really don't know what i am doing when it comes to flashing these boards. (as i have never done it before) and i don't want to brick the board, but i think with your guys help, i can straighten this out. without sending it back to mesa. i really think its a firmware issue since i am unable to read the firmware through terminal or in mesaflash, the firmware section is greyed out.
any help is greatly appreciated.

We asked for return of the card to eliminate it as a possible cause of your issues.
We do ask for shipping for cards returned to Mesa, If no problem is found we would
ask for return shipping. If a board fault exists (that's not customer caused) , we would ship
a warranty replacement card at no additional cost.

Technical things:

1. Its not a firmware issue. Firmware without a valid CRC will fail to load

2. A watchdog bite means communication failed for long enough to trigger the watchdog
This means major issue with communications. This could be a faulty 7I96S (though
it would be a very unlikely error type)  checking the card would eliminate it as a possible cause.

Not sure why loading the DKMS driver would cause you to lose your network, 
This needs to solved as a separate issue.

My guess is the issue is the common problem with the built in Realtek driver which requires:

1. Installing the Realtek 8168 DKMS driver
2. Disabling Ethernet and ASPM PCIE power management in the kernel command line

This thread details these operations:

forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/5323...resh-install?start=0

In addition, it could also be that you still have some power saving /cstates>C1/speed switching enabled in the BIOS



 

The 8168-dkms driver requires the installation of DKMS and linux-headers for your particular kernel
These should be installed by the Linux ISO