This situation is with a new (factory serviced) HP Pavilion 522n with modem connectivity problems. It has a LT Data Fax Modem with Ver 8.20 driver. Many attempts to connect to AOL, EarthLink, and MCI via Hyper Terminal. Will not connect, or if it does connect to the AOL server, it is only 8K -- 12K connection. If it connects, sometimes it disconnects. I tried an external Compaq USB modem with latest driver. No better. I moved the modem to PCI slot 1 from 3, no change. After a destructive system recovery to completely reinstall Windows XP back to factory specs, still would not make a connection with the new AOL ver 8.0 was installed. AOL had me add a modem string ATX0,,,,, (five commas) that did occasionly connect to AOL. Sometimes it will connect after many attempts. I would appreciate any suggestions. Note: A laptop connected to the phone line made connections with 3 different user names. The telephone company checked the phone line. What could cause this problem? A CompUSA tech said that 90% of the time a nondistructive or destructive system reovery would solve this type of problem. The nondistructive recovery resulted in the system hanging up. The destructive recovery went very fast compared to the nondestructive recovery. AOL ver 8.0 reloaded. Will not connect. What else could cause this???