Win 98 won't recognize modem but the bios does???

[laker42]

I have a win98 machine that i just reloaded. At first, windows was seeing that there was a US Robotics SPortster windom 28.8 modem installed and was asking me to load the driver for it. I went out and downloaded what I thought was the right driver. When I pointed it to the downloaded files, it saw it as a SPortster winmodem 33.3. I rebooted and it came up and found the 28.8 modem & it said it installed the software for it. It then found a 33.3 modem and installed software for it. IT then gave me a prompt that it needed to restart to finish configuring. After restart, it took me through the same events. It did this several times. I finally pulled the modem out & restarted the machine. I deleted the 33.3 drivers and then reinstalled the modem. Windows now does not find the modem now. I tried through device manager & control panel, it will not communicate with the modem. If I go into the BIOS, it does recognize that the modem is there. If I hook a telephone up to the modem, the phone works so I think that is a good indication that the modem is ok, correct? Any ideas what might be going on? Thanks for the help.

John

 

[mattjurado]

If I go into the BIOS, it does recognize that the modem is there"

What exactly do you see?
I suspect the motherboard has a chip for an onboard modem as well. Disable it. Boot to safe mode, go to device manager, expand modems, remove anything there.

Reboot, load the driver for your pci modem.

Matt J.

Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Pop out everything again, and Clear (Reset) the ESCD in the BIOS. I haven't seen a modem in the BIOS yet, especially PCI. I suspect it's an ISA modem though on an older board and it's assigned a specific IRQ in the BIOS. If this is the case, you'll need to change/assign the appropriate IRQ setting in Device Mangler. Also, check for Correct COM port configuration (try "Auto" in BIOS) and what shows up in Device Mangler. under "Ports"?

Any "?" or "!" or "Other?" listed in Device Mangler?

How old is the Board? what Make/Model.
Maybe save headaches with a new PCI modem if any slots available

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
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[laker42]

This is an old compaq machine. Not exactly how old, it is a friend's. The BIOS setup is different than any other BIOS setup I have seen. In there, there is a section called Add-in Devices. I go in there and it recognizes the US Robotics Sportster Winmodem 28.8. In there, I can configure the IRQ. In Device Manager, it only shows Com Port 1. There is no ? or ! devices in there either. If I didn't add the modem through the control Panel/Modems, then the modem won't show up anywhere in the device manager. I will have to see if the board has any info on it.

Thanks for the help!
John

 

[TekTippy4U]

does the IRQ assigned to modem in BIOS "match" the IRQ shown in modem properties/resources in Device Manager?
and likewise, does the modem properties in DM say it's using COM1?

how about in DM > COM Port > Resources Tab does the i/o range (ex. 03F8-03FF) - "match" in BIOS and DM? same with IRQ# assigned?
try;
Start > Run Msinfo32
expand [+] Hardware Resources > IRQs
expand [+] Components > Modem

got the correct ROMpaq (softPaq) from Compaq?

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
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