Had the same issue here, but only when the NIC (by Realtek) was plugged
into a gigabit ethernet switch (the brand of switch did not matter).
BSOD every time even in safe mode. Moved cable to 10/100 switch - no
BSOD.
I've encountered problems with Realtek chips before (usually found on
cheap mobos or cheap NICs and it shows), so I usually replace NICs with
IntelPro's or something else more reliable. Anytime you see a "crab"
silkscreened on a VLSI chip, you can be assured it is crap.


--
BeefyDog