USR 2976 OEM modem & XP

[mrwilhelm]

OK... new OEM modem in new build XP box. Device shows up as "PCI Serial Port" and there are no native drivers for it (3Com's website confirms this). I've tried every possible compatible driver I can find to no avail.

Either the modem is not compatible with XP (which seems highly unlikely) or it was DOA. Since I'm not completely sure which one it is I don't know whether to RMA it for a replacement or return it for credit and go with a different model.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[NooNoo]

USR OEM modems are evil when it comes to drivers

These are the 2k drivers and should work fine. Unzip them to a directory - go to device manager and update the pci serial port and point windows to the files you have unzipped.

If that does not work, uninstall the pc serial port (and any unknown devices - check hidden devices too) reboot and when it is redetected point at the unzipped files. It is going to whine the drivers are not correct - I would force xp to take them - but set a restore point first!!

XP has no native support for this modem, neither has 2k. here is the list of what does have native support

Good Luck!

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by mrwilhelm
..... Device shows up as "PCI Serial Port" and there are no native drivers for it (3Com's website confirms this). I've tried every possible compatible driver I can find to no avail.

Either the modem is not compatible with XP (which seems highly unlikely) or it was DOA. Since I'm not completely sure which one it is I don't know whether to RMA it for a replacement or return it for credit and go with a different model....

It shows as a pci serial port or controller ... 'cos that's what it is ! The modem bit lives behind a thing called a UART ! When you find the right 'stuff' (I'm loathe to call them drivers here, cos they aren't really, but rather define a child device, but that's not important here!) windows 'sees' the controller for what it is & 'finds' the modem hidden behind the UART ....

I found some 'usr 2976 OEM' drivers here .... USR Support ... for 98, NT, ME & 2k should be good to go under xp though.... (Noo's link was dead when I clicked it ... so I 'googled' some more )

[NooNoo]

Link is not dead, it is a direct link of their ftp to the file. Perhaps it downloaded in background to you and is sitting in a temp directory?

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Link is not dead, it is a direct link of their ftp to the file. Perhaps it downloaded in background to you and is sitting in a temp directory?

Nope my firewall 'killed' it ... doesn't trust ftp ! , my bad ! ... but now you can get your drivers either via HTTP or FTP

[mrwilhelm]

Thanks for the help guys, but been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Those were the first drivers I tried (the first of many). I can force XP to install them successfully, but the modem won't pass the diagnostics (it won't respond to the query).

I guess I should rephrase my question and ask if anyone here has gotten this particular modem working in XP?

[confus-ed]

What do you mean 'force' ? You mean the drivers are unsigned .... or you have to 'help' out the install & point it at some directories ... or what .... ?


BTW when you've already tried stuff why don't you just tell us first !?! ... then we don't go & repeat your mistakes....

[mrwilhelm]

That would be door number two Monty! Not only do I have to point it the proper directory, I have to install the drivers against XP's recommendation (you know, the one that says it can't recommend installing the chosen driver because it can't guarantee it's XP compatible).

As for your second suggestion, I did say in my original post that I've already tried every driver I could find that looked even remotely compatible. I just assumed you guys would take it for granted that that included the original manufacurer's drivers. After all, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck you know!

[NooNoo]

OK, so these are the trouble shooting questions I would ask myself when faced with this problem...

You said you were not sure about whether the modem works or not, have you tried it in another machine with the original drivers for an OS that you have the drivers for?
Which slot have you put this in?
Did you try resetting/forcing escd update?
Does the bios list the device on boot properly?
Is the machine using acpi?
Is the modem sharing an irq?
Have you tried uninstalling the "modem" in safe mode?
Have you looked under hidden devices in safe mode?
Have you tried installing it as a standard modem?
Trying every driver in the book usually leads to windows getting very confused. Have you done a search for the inf files that usr uses and renamed them?

The problem with your statement is that while you may not have just fallen of the turnip truck, other people are not telepathic.

[confus-ed]

Well Noo ... that's less 'rude' than I was about to be ...you beat me to the post (again! )

.... I think the 'inf' may very well be the trouble, especially as he was having to point the install to a directory, Vulcan needs to make sure his system is as 'clean' of all this debris as possible or windows like you say will be confus-ed ! ... & we don't want that !

[mrwilhelm]

Sorry, I'm absolutely swamped with work right now and was hoping to just get a quick answer as to this particular modem's compatibility with XP, otherwise I would have taken the time to go into more detail.

I've already tried just about everything on your checklist. Unfortunately the only PC's I have access to right now are one flavor of XP or another. I did try it on a different XP machine and got the same behavior.

And BTW, the only driver I actually installed was the "official" USR Win2K version (the same one you guys linked to). The others I simply pointed to and if XP didn't like them I aborted the install.

Hope that clarifies things a bit, sorry again for being so vague.

[confus-ed]

He-he-he ... apology granted ...

What next is another story ! ... all I can do, is repeat Noo's advice & say - find out if its 'good' for sure under 2000 ...

If all you've done is tell xp to look at another directory & ignore those stupid 'unsigned' driver messages, I can't see you've done anything 'wrong' , though its still a 2000 'inf' which might still have wrong paths in it, you want as you say someone with a working one, so you can directly compare files & versions .... That's all it'll be, some mismatch somewhere's but what - is another matter !

[NooNoo]

The modem has no official support for XP - it is therefore officially incompatible. Trying to get it to work under XP for a customer seems like a whole load of grief to me especially as you have the option to get a modem that is officially supported.

There can never be a quick answer to this type of query because you are trying to use hardware that has minimal support and only in theory could be made to work.

[cabal]

I had one of those modems working in a win xp machine, it used the win2k drivers without a problem. It was an old work machine, 266 pII with scsi drives, a real dog but it did it's job ok.

[geoscomp]

We use 2976 modems all the time in our xp machines with no problems at all. You just have to point the harware installation wizard at the correct driver located here or if you cant use ftp..go here and scroll down to the 2976 zip file. Unzip it to a floppy and remove the modem in device manager..however it's listed..and restart the computer. When it asks for drivers point it to the floppy. If this doesn't work, the modem is bad. Ignore any unsigned driver messages. You won't find signed drivers for this modem ever. We find this particular hardware based oem modem holds on to the line and gives better upload/download speeds in rural areas around here.