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Winmodem does not detect and install

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jparkhill

Technical User
Aug 15, 2002
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A neighbor lost her hard drive last week and we bought a new one, upgrading her operating system from Win98se to Win2000. The problem is she has a 56k winmodem that will not work nor detect any software (drivers) from the W2k CD.

I recall from my old modem days what a hassle the winmodems were and I quit using them, but that doesn't solve my problem now. How do I obtain software drivers to run this winmodem...brand unknown. Is there some workaround to get running? A generic driver perhaps?

Thanks for the assist.

Jan
 
WinModems are generally not supported by MS generic drivers. You will probably have to pull the card from the system to determine its make/model/chipset. Then you can download the appropriate drivers from the manufacturer.

If you have a Linux boot disk (floppy or CD), you can boot the PC with Linux and "cat /proc/pci" and look at what device is on the bus. You can download Knoppix or the Linux Bootable Business Card for this purpose.

There should be a way to do the same thing in Windows, but I have no idea how to do it.


pansophic
 
Thanks, Panosophic...

I've had the winmodem out of the PC, but didn't pay much attention to the chip/name. Gawd only knows, but NO ONE puts there name on a modem (...USR will occasionally) :)

I'll see if the chip gives me a good clue for a driver...I'm afraid my user will NOT know how to provide this info.

Thanks,

Jan
 
I've checked and the chipset is Motorola. Info I've gathered indicates Motorola got out of the modem business and that includes dismantling their modem webpage so, no drivers are available.

I checked several places like Drivers.com and I'm not sure what they suggest I try. Anyone have any ideas on getting this Winmodem to run properly? I'm hoping to find generic drivers for any winmodem...

Jan
 
Every WinModem is unique in the way that it addresses the hardware, so a generic is out of the question. There are generic drivers for specific chipsets, so occassionally a driver written for one brand of modem with the Connexant chipset will work on another brand of modem with a Connexant chipset, but that is about as good as it gets.

Did you look on 56K.com? They sometimes have references to generic chipset drivers. They have a link to that was up and running.

I found this out there as well.


pansophic
 
pansophic, thanks again. I'll dig deeper into these sites and hopefully test the modem.
 
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