Repeated "failed to stop TX DMA" errors
A user on a rolling-release distribution saw recurring transmit-DMA errors on a combo adapter, on every 3.x kernel they tried.
A developer explained that fixes for that chip existed in the wireless development tree but not in the stable 3.9 series, and that the latest backport release predated them. The user asked for a way to test only the networking modules without moving to a new kernel.
Takeaway. Fixes often land in a development tree before a stable release or a backport snapshot. Check where a fix lives before compiling.