Opencomm-couldn't open port message 1

[paz8473]

Friend bought computer from his friend mainly for internet use, everything is working fine.
Computer in question is an Emachine, running Windows '98.
Friends woman did something that caused computer to no longer sign on to internet.
Friend who knows nothing about computers bravely attempts to uhm...fix problem, can't blame the guy for giving it a go, that's how I got started fixin' 'em.
However, details are a bit sketchy as to exactly what went on while admittedly computer illiterate friend tries to uhm...fix problem with modem.
Being somewhat experienced with troubleshooting and correcting PC woes, I offer to take a look at friends machine.

I think this is not too difficult a problem, but I keep my own computers running flawlessly, so it's not everyday I get to try to figure out a problem like this and excercise my troubleshooting skills.

So here's a couple of questions:
Does anyone know how to get to the setup screen on an e-machine before Win98 loads?

When I try to get the machine to find the modem, it goes straight to a message with the heading of "Opencomm" and the message "Couldn't open port".

Anyone know how to fix this? or have any ideas of what I should be looking for?

Thanks
Paz

 

[mattjurado]

Something has a hold on the port. Run msconfig, go to the startup tab, disable all apps but systray and explorer, see if it goes away. If it does, reenable them one at a time to see what the culprit is.

To get into the bios, should be the delete key.

http://www.emachines.com/support/

Matt J.

 

[paz8473]

Yep, Delete worked and I will try using the MSCONFIG idea to track something down.
Thanks for the response Matt.

 

[paz8473]

Now we're getting somewhere, I'm getting a different error now, it says the modem failed to respond, and I need to verify the interupt for the port is set properly, how do I do that?

 

[mattjurado]

Okay, so all background apps are disabled right? I need to know where this error pops up.

To verify what you should do/see... Go to control panel, modems, you should see one listed (if more than one, post the results). If so, go to diagnostics tab, highlight the com port the modem is on, select MORE INFO. You should see a series of AT commands and responses, there should be no errors. If you get a open port, or modem error, post it. Need to know what com port the modem is on, and if you see any errors in device manager. I'll be around a little while if you want to respond tonight.

Matt J.

 

[paz8473]

The modem is on COM 1, when I click the 'more info' button, that is when I am getting the message I listed above that says: "Modem is not responding, verify that the interupt for the port is properly set", when I click 'OK' the following window show the following info:
Port: 1
Interupt: 4
Address: 3F8
UART: NS 16550 AN
and in the lower portion of the window:
Standard 56000 bps V90 Modem
Identifier: USRK2_Gen

Hope this helps.

 

[paz8473]

I have discovered another puzzling problem, when I go into the start menu and tell the computer to 'Shutdown' it just restarts, every time, what's up with that?
The only way I have found to shut the machine off is to push the power button, of course it doesn't go through the shutdown procedure when I do this, it just cuts the power.

 

[paz8473]

Some more information to add in regards to the shutdown problem, when I tell it to shutdown, the screen goes black, it beeps 3 times and begins the bootup process.

 

[mattjurado]

Did the modem come with the computer? If so, the standard driver is not likely to work, the emachines tend to come with pci modems requiring very specific driver sets. I'd start with reinstalling the modem driver. I'd go to emachines website and look for the driver if you don't have it on disk.

There could be other problems with that system, but start with the modem driver, see if you can get that reloaded.

Matt J.

 

[paz8473]

I don't think the modem is the one that came with the machine, he said he installed a new modem, I have the disc and have already tried to re-install it from scratch, I get the same error about verifying the interupt for the port.

I took a modem from another machine and installed it into this one and have the very same problem, this computer only has 2 PCI slots and I have tried them both with the same results.

It seems to know the modem is there but can't communicate with it or get it to do anything, when I try to update drivers it says the best driver is already installed.

Could there be a problem with the PCI slots?

 

[paz8473]

Well, I have a much bigger problem now, I was messing around with the restore disc and it gave the option to restore Win98 without reformatting the HD, I went for it and now I'm at a dead end because I don't have the key code to restart windows, anyone know how to bypass this, just in case my friend doesn't have all the original documentation?

It has been so long since I re-formatted a system that I wasn't even thinking about having the Windows key ID and such.

I hope there is a way to get around this.