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January 28th, 2004 08:00
No Sound with Lucent LT Win Modem in Windows XP
After days of searching for a driver that would make the Lucent LT Win Modem sound work in an Inspiron 7500 after it had been upgraded to Windows XP Pro, this is what I have come up with; it's also possible that it may work for some other models on which Win XP was not factory-installed but where the Lucent LT Win Modem was.
I have read the many posts in this Section and other Forums on the Web, and they tend to be a little vague in my opinion, although you can get there eventually. I don't wish to step on any toes, by the way, but I just couldn't seem to find a "direct route" to the file I needed; if I missed something then I apologize.
Simply get to a "search" box on the Dell Inspiron Tech Support Website and put in the file name ESS2042.exe, download the file, and follow the instructions to install it.
The bizarre thing is that while the generic ESS sound drivers are available on the Win XP Pro CD, they do not include the small part (or "slider", if you prefer) that makes the sound for the modem work, which is called "Phone In". You literally have to "downgrade" back to the older Windows 2000 sound drivers, which are contained in the ESS2042.exe file; even the previous Win 2K ESS sound drivers (I75A2KA1.exe) don't have the necessary part to make the modem sounds work. This was an inexcusable omission by Microsoft, and it doesn't help that Dell failed to make an updated Win XP driver with this required feature available, as well - they make you have to go "backward" if you want your modem to function correctly. Just don't forget to go into the Volume Control "applet" and make sure the "Phone In" slider is not muted after you install the new drivers.
Even the most updated sound drivers at the ESS Maestro Website don't have the "Phone In" slider included for some reason, but here's their URL just in case you want to go check them out.
http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm
And after you do that, you may want to go the Agere Systems (they acquired the Lucent modem line) Website and upgrade your actual modem driver to the latest version, 8.30; it sure seems to make it work better. Just remember that it will rename the modem in the Windows Device Manager section, and you may have to go in and re-adjust some of your settings.
http://www.agere.com/support/client/modem_driver2.html
Another good modem site to check out is literally ModemSite.com; they have tons of info on "everything modem".
Anyway, I hope this saves some of you a little of the torture and brain-damage that I had to go through to get the sound back on my Lucent LT / Agere Win Modem after I upgraded to Win XP Pro.
Good luck!
johnallg
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January 28th, 2004 15:00
Message Edited by johnallg on 01-28-2004 01:08 PM
Travis_Lloyd
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January 28th, 2004 18:00
John,
Thanks for the compliment.
By the way, do you have any idea why Dell didn't make a true Windows XP ESS Maestro sound driver upgrade (including the elusive modem sound driver) available, considering the fact that literally thousands of people out there own very serviceable Inspiron 7500 computers with the internal LT Win Modem which they have upgraded (and currently are upgrading) to Windows XP? And this is not even mentioning the thousands more who have a Lucent (or some other brand of) Win Modem installed, which also require the special driver.
It's nothing short of ludicrous that these poor souls have to install an old Windows 2000 sound driver package on Windows XP to make their internal modems work correctly.
By the way, I just noticed that after you "downgrade" back to the old Win 2K sound drivers, the next time you go to the Windows Update site Microsoft wants you to upgrade back to the latest ESS drivers, which don't include the "Phone In" modem sound driver slider, which in turn puts you right back to where you started from (i.e., no modem sounds).
It simply can't be that big a deal to include the crummy little bit of coding that it would take to make the Lucent LT / Agere Win Modem fully functional in Windows XP.
Your comments, please...
Message Edited by Travis_Lloyd on 01-28-2004 02:05 PM
johnallg
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January 28th, 2004 20:00
W2k and XP drivers are almost always interchangable, so it isn't terrible to have to use it. That said, Dell does have an XP driver for the Maestro 3i in the 3800 (same "generation" notebook) so who knows why no Maestro 2E XP driver. At least the w2k driver is there and works.