Not sure about this but it was my impression that there is a way that you can access email from another isp from a broadband connection. You might check with both your current and old isps to see if there is a way to do this. Or maybe someone here or on one of the software boards could answer that.
Seems kind of weird that one MS program would mess up another one unless it needs an update. I had problems with IE so switched to Firefox browser several years ago after reading good reports on the Dell forums and elsewhere I think. I've been happy. Also I just saw a statistic about the number of days there was an unprotected issue needing a patch--or something like that and with IE it was I think over 100 days and with Firefox just a few. Also I used to get spyware found on my computer when using IE but not after switching to Firefox.
And I think I'll stick with XP. My impression is that there are some challenges with Vista with apparently many people preferring XP. And I'm still with sp2 for XP as I'd heard there were some problems with sp3. 2 IT guys told me they had major problems when installing sp3 for XP.
I run vista, and it is just as buggy as XP. As far as taking an IT's opinion on updates I have a rule of thumb, remember that they have to serve the interests of the company before their selves. In that thought the IT department says the same thing about SP3, but they do a lot of moderating in employees computers. So I imagine that SP3 does not serve the companies interests and won't work with their software as effectively.
As far as a personal computer, run what's best for you.
To address the OP's issue, I would uninstall the modem, and reinstall it. SP1 for vista messed my hardware something awful and I had to reinstall all my drivers to get them to work properly, aside from the sound card and network card. Everything else went to pot, including the Dial Up PCI modem. Antiquated hardware = not a high priority for Microsoft. So, a simple reinstallation of the Drivers fixed every problem I had and everything went right to working as it should.
This is not an uncommon problem with windows XP & Vista. You will sometimes install something and one part of the OS says its there and the other is lost, I noticed that the related components become reset and don't readdress the components that were there all of the time and you end up having to do hardware uninstall/reinstalls to get them to reinitialize. It is hopefully a simple fix and would take a few moments and it will be done.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the modem driver, but the Network and Sharing Centre still reports "Windows could not detect a dial-up modem". I can receive email sent to my old address fine with the broadband connection - I cannot send via POP, but I can use my old ISP's web mail. My fear is that the old ISP will terminate the "pay as you go" account if I have not dialled in for 35 days. And of course, it is comforting to have a back-up if my broadband connection has problems.
Don't rule out that the modem may simply be going bad. The phone lines carry enough voltage to fry a modem quickly and I have (from simple thunderstorms and equipment maintenance via the phone company) seen many modems go bad from seemingly unexplained reasons. Test it by getting an external modem, I have an old Xircom PCMCIA I use for just this type of situation. If it recognizes the new one you can be %99 sure it has simply gone bad.
Ahh, the modem squelch. Probably the most annoying and nostalgic sound a computer could ever make and a guaranteed sign that it is working.
What series modem is this? I want to duplicate this on another vista machine (on an XP machine now) because I think I have an idea but I can't remember exactly where the setting is. Try unplugging your broadband connection, plug in the dial up and do what you normally do. Under the networking menu there should be a red x between the computer and the internet. Clicking on that will help you diagnose the issue, I will do some research to see what I can come up with, hopefully someone else already knows and can answer it quickly for you.
This reminds me of another computer basic that may or may not be relevant here. You didn't mention whether you leave your computer running all the time or whether you turn it off, say overnight.
I don't understand it all real well, but apparently as we are doing things on the computer, stuff gets left in memory and that stuff can sometimes cause problems.
So sometimes turning the computer off--I think I've heard to leave it off for 2 min or more to I guess the volatile memory to expire or whatever it does so it will lose what is left in it. Then turn the computer back on and sometimes the problem will have gone away.
This works for a number of things. When my computer is getting sluggish that can help.
One major thing is worked for was when the Dell contracted tech came out to replace the motherboard (the LAN connection was intermittent since the connector was loose). While doing that he also inserted a CD in the drive to update the BIOS. I remember he had trouble and had to mickey mouse it a bit to get it to work. I later found out why.
He did re-start the computer and I think had to mickey mouse it there to but he didn't seem to know why. He did not make sure that I could connect to the internet or that it would start up properly after it had been turned off. He was just a hardware guy I was told. Lame excuse.
Anyway, after he left I tried to connect. Now I couldn't connect at all. When I called Dell they said to turn it off, or I think also now that I think about it, they told me to turn the modem off for a couple of min. I don't think they said to turn the computer off since that problem didn't surface until the next day.
So I turned the modem off to reset it.
Next day I couldn't boot the computer. Had to call Dell again. Turned out the installer didn't know what he was doing when he installed the BIOS. He should have gone in and made sure that both the C and CD/DVD drives were selected as boot drives.
So anyway, the computer and I guess modems can have a bit of memory storage and when they get messed up, sometimes just turning them off for a period of time will allow the garbage to be removed.
It works for some things and sure is a lot easier than a lot of other possibilities to try. So if you haven't already tried that, it might work.
Right - I unplugged the network cable and tried creating a dial-up connection - I still get "Windows could not detect a dial-up modem". I realised that wireless broadband was still available, so I turned the broadband modem off, and rebooted the laptop with no broadband connection (it could still see my neighbours' wireless connections, but I have never connected to these). Tried creating a dial-up connection - still get "Windows could not detect a dial-up modem".
I have an Inspiron 6400 with Vista Home Premium. Control Panel System applet shows SP1 is installed. The modem is the Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 internal modem supplied with the laptop.
As much as I hate giving software walk through's, lets begin.
First off, I don't know why its doing this so hopefully going through the steps to do this will help solve the problem. If all else fails, just make sure its done right before we do anything else so follow the steps and just be patient. I used to do this on Win95/98 hundreds of thousands of times to fix internet connections.
Start in the control panel; open 'Network & Sharing Center'. If you have the Vista default skin and setup find the 'Set up a connection or network' link on the left should be easy to find.
Inside the pop-up window there is a series of selections, you want 'Set up a dial-up connection'. Click it, then click next.
If you cannot at this point in time continue because you get the error message 'Windows could not detect a dial-up modem' the registry has not 'registered' your modem and you will have to uninstall it. Not just uninstall it you will have to find the driver specific entries and delete them from your system. If you can continue windows has detected the modem and you can move on, create the connection and be done with it. If not follow these instructions;
This folder; C:\dell\drivers\R139434
and its subsequent files. Delete the files first, then the folder. We will assume it is a faulty or corrupt driver at this point. The installed files are not in this folder. You will have to type the name of each file, do a search of that file and delete wherever it may be. If you do not have this folder Dell has installed them directly.
These files;
del1028.cty
dellhdaz.cat
DellHDAz.inf
difxapi.dll
disk1
HSX_CNXT.sys
HSX_DPV.sys
MdmXSdk.dll
MDMXSDK.sys
UCI32113.dll
UIUDLL.dll
UIUSYS.sys
xaudio
xaudio.sys
Then we can move on.
It is most likely an HSF driver set, the basic and universal driver for this type of modem and you can download the HSF or HCF driver set for XP without guaranteed compatibility for Vista, Conexant does not have vista drivers.
Or you can get the drivers from dells site and download them again and reinstall from there. I would go with the HSF XP drivers and test, it may very well be the reason why they aren't working now. Its an experiment with drivers at this point.
Have them and the Dell versions on hand and try both.
If either don't work the only thing left to do is edit the registry and unfortunately I don't have the registry entry for this modem on hand to help with perhaps someone on the software side does. When you can, delete the registry and start again. After all is said and done it should work. Every dial-up modem I have had to correct never had to go further than this, ever, to get it working short of replacement.
I'm very grateful for the suggestions here, but when I encouraged Vista to install XP drivers from the Conexant site, I got a blue screen and Windows Defender blocking the rogue program on start-up. It took a couple of system restores, reboots, and visits into MSCONFIG to get Windows to start normally again. I may try again, but I'm busy and have other things to do first.
KathiMR
282 Posts
0
September 29th, 2008 07:00
Not sure about this but it was my impression that there is a way that you can access email from another isp from a broadband connection. You might check with both your current and old isps to see if there is a way to do this. Or maybe someone here or on one of the software boards could answer that.
Seems kind of weird that one MS program would mess up another one unless it needs an update. I had problems with IE so switched to Firefox browser several years ago after reading good reports on the Dell forums and elsewhere I think. I've been happy. Also I just saw a statistic about the number of days there was an unprotected issue needing a patch--or something like that and with IE it was I think over 100 days and with Firefox just a few. Also I used to get spyware found on my computer when using IE but not after switching to Firefox.
And I think I'll stick with XP. My impression is that there are some challenges with Vista with apparently many people preferring XP. And I'm still with sp2 for XP as I'd heard there were some problems with sp3. 2 IT guys told me they had major problems when installing sp3 for XP.
TMcCaine
262 Posts
0
September 29th, 2008 14:00
I run vista, and it is just as buggy as XP. As far as taking an IT's opinion on updates I have a rule of thumb, remember that they have to serve the interests of the company before their selves. In that thought the IT department says the same thing about SP3, but they do a lot of moderating in employees computers. So I imagine that SP3 does not serve the companies interests and won't work with their software as effectively.
As far as a personal computer, run what's best for you.
To address the OP's issue, I would uninstall the modem, and reinstall it. SP1 for vista messed my hardware something awful and I had to reinstall all my drivers to get them to work properly, aside from the sound card and network card. Everything else went to pot, including the Dial Up PCI modem. Antiquated hardware = not a high priority for Microsoft. So, a simple reinstallation of the Drivers fixed every problem I had and everything went right to working as it should.
This is not an uncommon problem with windows XP & Vista. You will sometimes install something and one part of the OS says its there and the other is lost, I noticed that the related components become reset and don't readdress the components that were there all of the time and you end up having to do hardware uninstall/reinstalls to get them to reinitialize. It is hopefully a simple fix and would take a few moments and it will be done.
steelworks
6 Posts
0
September 29th, 2008 19:00
TMcCaine
262 Posts
0
September 29th, 2008 20:00
steelworks
6 Posts
0
September 30th, 2008 21:00
TMcCaine
262 Posts
0
October 1st, 2008 11:00
Ahh, the modem squelch. Probably the most annoying and nostalgic sound a computer could ever make and a guaranteed sign that it is working.
What series modem is this? I want to duplicate this on another vista machine (on an XP machine now) because I think I have an idea but I can't remember exactly where the setting is. Try unplugging your broadband connection, plug in the dial up and do what you normally do. Under the networking menu there should be a red x between the computer and the internet. Clicking on that will help you diagnose the issue, I will do some research to see what I can come up with, hopefully someone else already knows and can answer it quickly for you.
KathiMR
282 Posts
0
October 1st, 2008 20:00
This reminds me of another computer basic that may or may not be relevant here. You didn't mention whether you leave your computer running all the time or whether you turn it off, say overnight.
I don't understand it all real well, but apparently as we are doing things on the computer, stuff gets left in memory and that stuff can sometimes cause problems.
So sometimes turning the computer off--I think I've heard to leave it off for 2 min or more to I guess the volatile memory to expire or whatever it does so it will lose what is left in it. Then turn the computer back on and sometimes the problem will have gone away.
This works for a number of things. When my computer is getting sluggish that can help.
One major thing is worked for was when the Dell contracted tech came out to replace the motherboard (the LAN connection was intermittent since the connector was loose). While doing that he also inserted a CD in the drive to update the BIOS. I remember he had trouble and had to mickey mouse it a bit to get it to work. I later found out why.
He did re-start the computer and I think had to mickey mouse it there to but he didn't seem to know why. He did not make sure that I could connect to the internet or that it would start up properly after it had been turned off. He was just a hardware guy I was told. Lame excuse.
Anyway, after he left I tried to connect. Now I couldn't connect at all. When I called Dell they said to turn it off, or I think also now that I think about it, they told me to turn the modem off for a couple of min. I don't think they said to turn the computer off since that problem didn't surface until the next day.
So I turned the modem off to reset it.
Next day I couldn't boot the computer. Had to call Dell again. Turned out the installer didn't know what he was doing when he installed the BIOS. He should have gone in and made sure that both the C and CD/DVD drives were selected as boot drives.
So anyway, the computer and I guess modems can have a bit of memory storage and when they get messed up, sometimes just turning them off for a period of time will allow the garbage to be removed.
It works for some things and sure is a lot easier than a lot of other possibilities to try. So if you haven't already tried that, it might work.
steelworks
6 Posts
0
October 1st, 2008 21:00
Right - I unplugged the network cable and tried creating a dial-up connection - I still get "Windows could not detect a dial-up modem". I realised that wireless broadband was still available, so I turned the broadband modem off, and rebooted the laptop with no broadband connection (it could still see my neighbours' wireless connections, but I have never connected to these). Tried creating a dial-up connection - still get "Windows could not detect a dial-up modem".
I have an Inspiron 6400 with Vista Home Premium. Control Panel System applet shows SP1 is installed. The modem is the Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 internal modem supplied with the laptop.
TMcCaine
262 Posts
0
October 1st, 2008 22:00
Look at that I am at home on my vista machine...
As much as I hate giving software walk through's, lets begin.
First off, I don't know why its doing this so hopefully going through the steps to do this will help solve the problem. If all else fails, just make sure its done right before we do anything else so follow the steps and just be patient. I used to do this on Win95/98 hundreds of thousands of times to fix internet connections.
Start in the control panel; open 'Network & Sharing Center'. If you have the Vista default skin and setup find the 'Set up a connection or network' link on the left should be easy to find.
Inside the pop-up window there is a series of selections, you want 'Set up a dial-up connection'. Click it, then click next.
If you cannot at this point in time continue because you get the error message 'Windows could not detect a dial-up modem' the registry has not 'registered' your modem and you will have to uninstall it. Not just uninstall it you will have to find the driver specific entries and delete them from your system. If you can continue windows has detected the modem and you can move on, create the connection and be done with it. If not follow these instructions;
This folder; C:\dell\drivers\R139434
and its subsequent files. Delete the files first, then the folder. We will assume it is a faulty or corrupt driver at this point. The installed files are not in this folder. You will have to type the name of each file, do a search of that file and delete wherever it may be. If you do not have this folder Dell has installed them directly.
These files;
del1028.cty
dellhdaz.cat
DellHDAz.inf
difxapi.dll
disk1
HSX_CNXT.sys
HSX_DPV.sys
MdmXSdk.dll
MDMXSDK.sys
UCI32113.dll
UIUDLL.dll
UIUSYS.sys
xaudio
xaudio.sys
Then we can move on.
It is most likely an HSF driver set, the basic and universal driver for this type of modem and you can download the HSF or HCF driver set for XP without guaranteed compatibility for Vista, Conexant does not have vista drivers.
Or you can get the drivers from dells site and download them again and reinstall from there. I would go with the HSF XP drivers and test, it may very well be the reason why they aren't working now. Its an experiment with drivers at this point.
Go here for Conexant drivers;
http://www.conexant.com/support/md_driverdownload.jsp
Have them and the Dell versions on hand and try both.
If either don't work the only thing left to do is edit the registry and unfortunately I don't have the registry entry for this modem on hand to help with perhaps someone on the software side does. When you can, delete the registry and start again. After all is said and done it should work. Every dial-up modem I have had to correct never had to go further than this, ever, to get it working short of replacement.
steelworks
6 Posts
0
October 5th, 2008 14:00
TMcCaine
262 Posts
0
October 6th, 2008 12:00
That was extremely unexpected, and unfortunate. I wouldn't have ever guessed that modem drivers would crash Vista.
Live, learn, Apologize...
It looks like you will have to keep with the Dell drivers and start the process anew.
Hopefully it can be coaxed to work with that.