HELP! XP not seeing my external modem :(

[retroshaun]

Hi all
I upgraded to XP Pro from 98 and all is absolutely great - an incredibly stable OS... aside from 2 problems!

When I boot up the PC, if the modem (external, on COM1) is not turned on before booting into windows, the modem is nopt visible to XP. Its listed in Hardware Manager but any dial up attempt brings the error: "Must configure a modem" or some such.

Secondly, more often than not on a first boot up the system does not recognise my CD writer (SCSI) or DVD drive (IDE). Simply restarting through XP makes them work again. As above, even if they are reported as not being there, they are visible in hardware Manager.

Any suggestions? Its really frustrating!

Shaun

 

[Mulga]

Are you sure the items in question are fully compatible with XP and that the modem has the latest drivers? All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.

 

[retroshaun]

Well I am presuming it is XP compatible (US Robotics are usually pretty good) but it seems weird that usually it works fine if turned on before power up. I'll try to find newer drivers and see what that does.

Thanks
Shaun

 

[deskduty]

If you turn on the modem after boot, go to Device Manager and try clicking Action...Scan for Hardware changes
Another thing to try is to get in to CMOS Bios and change the "Operating system is plug n play" to YES.

for the CD drives, look for the file scsi1hlp.vxd and rename it to something else like scsi1hlp.bak. That file has given me trouble before with CD roms.

 

[retroshaun]

Thanks I'll take a look at both those things.

Shaun