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6726
February 14th, 2008 01:00
Dial-Up Modem Connection Issues
See if you can figure this one out. I have a Dell Dimension 9100. About 3 weeks ago I began having issues when I was trying to dial in to AT&T dial up service. I would hear some weird sounds when the 2 modems tried to connect. Thumping sounds, pulsating volume etc. Sometimes it would connect sometimes not. If it did connect it would boot me off after 10 minutes max. Then it would attempt to re-dial and I would hear, "you do not need to enter a 1 or 0 when calling this number" Well neither of those are programmed into the software so I am not sure where that come from. I had a AT&T come out and check my home to see if it was excessive line noise. They said no your line is clear. You have a modem problem. I let the phone tech hear the weird noises when the modems tried to connect and he said he never heard it before. So i went through all the trouble shooting from AT&T, called their tech support and went through it again with them. Nothing worked. I went and installed a new modem. Thought maybe something had happened to it. Still does the same thing with the new modem. I switched ISP's, thought maybe AT&T had a network problem. Nope some thing. Brought a computer home from work to see if I could get it to connect. It connected no problem. So i know I have a problem on my computer. What could it be. The new modem has a new driver that I checked was the latest and greatest. I even switched PCI lots just to make sure. I am at the point of doing a complete system restore. I wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas before I do that. ANyhelp is appreciated.
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x_lab rat
2K Posts
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February 14th, 2008 15:00
Gnarly, Lorg. You have tried just about everything, short of the OS install and motherboard. Do you have other PCI cards that work properly, like audio? (Video doesn't count, it's wired differently.) Have you tried the modem with all other slot-cards removed?
I was going to say driver, until I read where you replaced that along with the modem. Or the phone wire, but that worked fine with another system.
Ordinarily, if the PCI bus has 'that big' a problem, it won't identify hardware and probably won't pass POST. See if a modem diagnostic came with the new modem software and if it reveals anything. Windows should not be able to inflict that degree of confusion on a device and still otherwise operate.
Do you ever notice other delays in response, like staggering mouse pointer? One thing that can hang PCI intermittently is chattering interrupts, which is a hardware issue. It can come from any PCI device, or from the chipset itself. It could even be coming from an onboard NIC, even though you're not using that. You might disable it in BIOS, if you haven't already.
Look in event log for possible clues relating to erroring devices--might not necessarily be the modem--also might escape being logged altogether. Boot to the diagnostic partition, run all the system board tests--long shot, but like I said, this is gnarly.
Mary G
6 Operator
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20.1K Posts
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February 14th, 2008 20:00
Have you reset the Connections settings in Internet Options? Sounds almost like the computer is trying to fax instead of dialing out. I would set up a completely new dialup connection from scratch. Change the telephone cable to a new one and connect to a different telephone jack. Check with a telephone that you plug into the internal modem's telephone port. I assume you have no broadband connection, just dial up.
Restore probably won't help you. You should run the complete Dell Diagnostics to see if the motherboard is failing. Test everything. The fact that a diff computer worked OK is ominous.
jmwills
2 Intern
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12K Posts
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February 15th, 2008 02:00
Since I am VERY good at spending other peoples money, get an external modem to see if it indeed the modem.
Check the return policy. These should be around $25. No DSL available in your area?
jmwills
2 Intern
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12K Posts
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February 15th, 2008 16:00
Lorg
2 Posts
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February 15th, 2008 16:00
Well I brought the computer to work and tried it here. I had the same thing. So I did a wipe and reloaded everything. I even put the old modem back in. Then it was working fine from the office. I went home and tried it out and it seemed to work so I loading an HP print driver then I started having problems again. I uninstalled the driver but did not have time to check it out before I had to go to work.
I do not have DSL yet. They say about 6 more months and it should be available. I will try and switch phone jacks and see if it helps at all.
Thanks for your help :)