mike3960:

Thanks for visiting the Dell Community Forums.

As far as I'm aware, Vista has no issues with dial up connections.

Which system and modem do you have? Are you receiving any errors when making connection attempts?

My daughter is having exactly the same problem with dial up on a Dell laptop.  She has not installed any new software on the machine and even after Dell replaced the motherboard and the modem, the problem is continuing.  She has tried it on my telephone line (I have no problems with either dial up or broadband) but with the same result.  Technical support seem at a loss to know what to do next.  I use XP and have suggested she ask to have XP installed instead of Vista.

yes, wouldn't it have been nice to have a choice in operating systems?  I was finally able to get the information saved for my dial-up from home....don't even know how it finally saved it.  I checked the modem, tested it and then maybe after many shutdowns and restarts and reentering it finally figured I was serious.  I will wait until I am actually on my trip now to enter the dial up info from there and just hope it works!  Make sure your daughter also checks the modem (can search at start menu) and tests it....maybe that was the key to "activating" it so to speak.

Janos

I didn't make it clear enough in my original post that my daughter manages to connect OK but then the connection drops perhaps after a minute or perhaps after half an hour or more. This happens repeatedly.

I googled the problem and came across quite a lot of similar problems and Vista seemed to be a common factor. No definite solutions offered (unless you paid to see it!) but one person suggested it could be related to automatic power saving and suggested the following:

"Disable the UAC reboot

Goto control pane phone and modems

you may have to put in your area code.

goto the modem tab

select modem hit properties

hit the advance tab.
type in extra initialization commands type.

+ms=v34

hit apply okay whatever. Reboot. Turn on the UAC reboot

Try the internet."

There was no indication though whether this had worked or not.

As a very inexperienced user, my daughter doesn't want to risk changing settings which might make things worse. So she waits to see if Dell technical support can come up with anything.

Yes, I am very glad I insisted on XP when I got my new computer from Dell last autumn!

annecel:

Thanks for the added information. Since you state you are getting connected, that's the biggest hurdle. However the disconnects can be difficult to troubleshoot.

A couple questions to consider:

Do you have other systems at this location and if so, are they experiencing the disconnects as well?

Have you tried connecting to your ISP from a friends house or seperate location?

If you can eliminate the location as a problem and narrow it down to the individual system, you may try connecting in "Safe Mode w/Networking" to eliminate a software issue on the laptop.

After replying, I realised I don't know how to get to Safe Mode w/networking - would be grateful for some guidance.  Thanks

There is only one system and my daughter has tried it at my home where I have had no problems with dial up.  It still disconnects at my home.  We'll try the safe mode.

While i had the computer I looked in the event log and found ACPI errors - many instances of the same error which was  "IRQARB ACPI bios does not contain and IRQ for the device in PCI slot 5 function 0".  I managed to discover that the wireless card is in pci slot 5 but device manager says its working OK.  Might this be relevant.

I also ran SFC/scannow and got a message at the end that some files could not be repaired.

That's got me to the end of the little technical expertise I have!

annecel:

Reboot your computer and when you see the Dell Splash Screen, start tapping the F8 key.

You should then be presented with an option to boot windows into "Safe Mode with Networking".

Thanks.  She will try this.  However, I got a reply from another source of help which suggests that Visa is not suitable for dial up because:

"Its true that Vista is not designed to use dial up, for the simple reason that many updates are just too large for dial up to cope with. 

The result would be great expense by paying a lot to stay online for downloads that are unsuccesful because the longer they take the more likely they are to be corrupted.  Also it means tying up the phone for long periods of time.  With broadband you can use the phone and internet at the same time.

There will be a back log of Vista updates waiting to be downloaded which will be causing more problems on the line and this will further slow the computer or even freeze it." (end of quote)

If that is correct, surely Dell should be putting a warning on their systems about trying to use dial up rather than assuming that everyone will be on broadband.  Especially if I'm right in thinking that Visa updates are set to load automatically when the system is received!

hi

 

this is exactly what i was told by the Dell tec.

i wish i would have knowen this when i called my sales rep,because Dial-up is the only choice where i live,Bell has been promissing highspeed since 2004,hard to belive that in 2008 we still cant get it

As Chris advised, after booting in to safe mode with networking, my daughter clicked on the "connect to" option on the start menu and got the message:

"Windows cannot find any network".

She thought perhaps the dial up connection she had set up might have gone so went in to "set up dial up" and got the message:

"Windows cannot detect a dial up modem.  Is the modem connected?  Is the modem switched on?"

The modem was connected and as it is internal, presumably switched on.  What does this suggest is wrong?

Thanks

Maybe you need to do as I posted previously with the modem:

 

I checked the modem, tested it and then maybe after many shutdowns and restarts and reentering it finally figured I was serious.  I will wait until I am actually on my trip now to enter the dial up info from there and just hope it works!  Make sure your daughter also checks the modem (can search at start menu) and tests it....maybe that was the key to "activating" it so to speak.

stampnbeauty

Thanks for response but I think her problem is not quite the same as yours because if she switches back to ordinary boot up she can connect- it's just that it keeps dropping.  I still  wonder whether that message in the event log is significant - the one about IRQs which seems to relate to network cards.