My mate got a cheap Aries PC (www.savastore.com/pc/default.asp) last year but hasn't used the modem before. When he tried to connect, it wouldn't work so I gave him some new drivers for it and they caused even more problems. When the computer starts it behaves very erratically from the logon screen. The bar is going like a duracell bunny and the cursor flashes on and off so quick you'd think it wasn't there. When you enter windows, the computer isn't stable enough to do anything and it certainly won't connect to the internet. I have solved the instability by removing the driver in safe mode.

The PC is Celeron 2GHz, ECS P4VMM2 m/board (inc sound/modem/graphics/LAN), 512Mb RAM, 80Gb HDD, CDRW, DVD.

It's a HSF modem, detected by the conexant utility as VIA (AC'97). It is in actual fact made by PCTel from what I can make out. I have tried PCTel drivers from the conexant site (they were bought over), the generic HSF drivers from conexant, the drivers available on the ECS page and some drivers I found in the windows catalog.

Windows always chooses the driver called HSP56 MR, but it's the one that causes instability. The only one that doesn't cause instability is the generic conexant one but then it doesnt work. It says error opening port (the modem is configured to COM3). Any ideas?