Interesting modem problem.

[rewep]

Alright this one is confusing me.. my problem is that when I take my modem out of this computer and put it into my new computer it won't work. I install all of the drivers and Windows says that it's there and there are no conflicts with it, but when I go to connect it won't. If I have the wait for dialtone before dialing box checked it will tell me that there is no dialtone, despite the fact that I can hear it coming through the speaker. If I don't have that checked, then it will dial, but nothing else will happen. It will just sit there not doing anything. This computer is a crappy little Packard Bell something or another with a Pentium 200 MMX and 64 megs of EDO SIMMs, a 320 meg hard drive (my 8.4 gig crashed.. now stop laughing.) compressed to 744 megs with Win98 SE installed on it. My modem is a Best Date "Smart One" series 56k ISA. The other computer I have that it won't work on has a Commate S7SXB motherboard, with an AMD K6-2 500mzh CPU, 32 megs of PC100 SDRAM, a 10gb hard drive also with Win98 SE installed on it. And like I said, it will work in the crappy little computer but not in this one.. any idea what could be causing this? Thanks for any help.

[Rkring1]

What modem is it , what chipset , and what comm port is it installing on ?

[rewep]

I listed the modem up there.. all the info I have is it's a Best Data Smart Ones series 56k ISA, and it's installing on COM 4.

[Rkring1]

I think the Best Data is a PC tel chipset , but not sure .The following works w/ Lucent chipsets , might work w/ this ?? Try disabling COMM 2 in bios , remove COMM 2 in device manager , reboot and let Windows do its thing , then try the modem.

[pcpjmoon7]

I go mine to work! It sounded like we had the same problem with our modems...maybe this solution might work.(see my posting of "modem won't dial.")

My modem has this thing with VIA chipsets. And it happens to be the same chipset that the newer PC has that wont't let the modem dial. First you must make sure the USB in the BIOS is enabled even if you don't have a form factor card hooked up. Then make sure that in PNP/PCI Config. in BIOS the "IRQ Activated by" is set to LEVEL not EDGE. Mine was set at Level already it was the USB thing that set the PCI IQ Steering when I rebooted. It was great now. You may have to uninstall the driver for you modem before you enable the USB or you may get a fatel error. I just reinstalled it again after the USB was up.
Hope it works!

[rewep]

cool, thanx I'll try that I know that the usb is disabled right now, and I think the other setting is level, but I'm not sure.

[rewep]

I can't disable the any of the comms in the bios, there doesn't seem to be a way. And I enabled the usb and the other setting is set to level and still nothing. Anyone else have any ideas?

[parning]

Originally posted by rewep:
My modem is a Best Date "Smart One" series 56k ISA. The other computer I have that it won't work on has a Commate S7SXB motherboard, with an AMD K6-2 500mzh CPU, 32 megs of PC100 SDRAM, a 10gb hard drive also with Win98 SE installed on it. And like I said, it will work in the crappy little computer but not in this one.. any idea what could be causing this? Thanks for any help.

Have you tried any init strings?

My favourite is AT&F&C0&D2&K3 for most usages. You can also try AT&F or AT&FX, but I wouldn't recommend the last one unless you were desperate.

For those who don't know where to put in an init string, it can be entered in the Modems Properties: from the main screen, choose Properties, then the Connection tab, then the Advanced button. Where it says Extra Settings is where you put the init string in. It doesn't matter if it's caps or not, but it sure makes it easier to read!

Also, check your Device Manager to make sure there's no conflicts. I had a similar problem when I upgraded my old P1 mobo/CPU to a P3, put all the same stuff on the new mobo, and discovered that I could use either the modem, the CD ROM, or the sound card, but not any two at once.

Turned out I had IRQ issues all over the place and just a bit of twiddling fixed everything.

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The opinions expressed herein are my own and not those of my employer.