Modem Failure: Board or Windows?

[pinnochio]

Three computers, one recently built, two other very stable units for 3-4 years and all three suddenly have the same exact problem. Two were using SmartLink Modems, which for some reason, will cause windows (ME) to lose modem and have to reinstall drivers on start up. Have tried other modems, but something common to all three is the problem and I don't know if its windows or the board/bios? How to tell? When trying phone dailer, I get Telephony in use by another program, even when all other modems ( all that I can find or know about ) are deleted in Modems and Device Mrg.
Is registry the problem or is it in the board as I suspect?
On one I actually got a Lucent modem to configure, dail up, but every 45 seconds, it disconnects on its own. CPU?
PSU? Harddrive/windows? How to tell?

Mystified,
-P

 

[wahnula]

I'm not too familiar with ME, only had 1 machine with it installed briefly 7 years or so ago...but it sounds like a driver issue. Make sure you have the latest ME drivers, and make sure they're not XP or Vista drivers. You may need to go back a version or two to find ME-compliant drivers.

Outside of visual inspection of the boards for swollen caps etc. there's not much I can recommend, other than trying them in another machine if they're not integrated. I found a driver here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/SmartLink_V.9092_Internal_Modem_d4927.html

Uninstall the modem, reboot and try this version.

Also, I would recommend you plan on making room in your budget for an OS update...once an OS gets that old it's hard to find good support.

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[Sympology]

Are these internal or external modems. I have seen the modem in use before and it was the com port in use or irq issues. Try seeing if they are ok. You may want to make sure the parrallel port is set to EPP (as opposed to ECP as it will use less system resources)

Stu..

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[BadBigBen]

Also, if these still have ME, then I would look under the hood, so to speak and take a close look at the mainboard for buldging and leaking capacitors...

CapPlaque

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[ATLMatt]

If those are software based modems, it could be that there are processes bogging down the CPU and causing disconnects due to the modems not having enough resources. ME is bad about resource management, and newer software could be bogging it down as well. If the problem just started on both PCs at once, if could be a lightning strike damaged them, or your ISP changed to protocols they don't support fully.

You could try drivers as well, ME is, in my humble opinion, the worst OS Microsoft ever released. I had more issues with hardware not working correctly under that OS than under all of the others I have worked with combined.