|
| Frames | Modems | Help | Home Page | Chipsets | Search | No Frames |
|
|
ContentsThe troubleshooter was originally written for users of the Windows® 95/98 operating system. This section can be used with any OS.The first two sections have reviewed a list of known problems & then given us our first little successes - there is a good hardware connection between telephone socket & telephone through the modem, & we know that the modem is capable of receiving a dial tone. So far so good. This section is going to check that there is a working communication between the computer & modem. Windows® 95/98 shields it's users from details that early modem users - and modern users of operating systems such as Linux - were (or are) stuck with. To give a flavour of this, immediately before my Motorola Soft modem connects the computer automatically sends two init strings to the modem: AT&F&D2&C1V1S0=0E0*bo4*ba4+a8e=1,1The point of this is that this was pre-programmed for me by the manufacturer & installed in place when the modem was installed in the computer. This is known as ease-of-use. In a similar ease-of-use fashion, win95/98 has a very useful diagnostic built into the Control Panel modems utility which will both check the computer-to-modem connection & also produce some very useful info. Unfortunately this diagnostic is not available for other, less user-friendly OS's, such as Linux, winNT or win2000.
|
|
Other OS
Send "ati0i1i2i3i4i5i6i7i8i9" (no quotes) to the modem from a Terminal program whilst NOT online.
It is almost impossible to give specific advice on uninstalling/reinstalling a modem - there are too many modem models, and too many computer systems, each with their own wrinkles - but a little general advice follows for win95/98 users:
Broadly, a modem needs a Com port which is it's own private preserve (no other devices occupying or using that port), with a private interrupt and address (resources) to match. Before the days of Plug'n'Play (PnP) these needed to be manually assigned with ISA devices, but are supposed to be automatic with PnP ISA or PCI devices.
Uninstallation:
this sometimes means hacking the Registry - an enterprise for the brave or foolhardy (or both). With my own Motorola SM56 soft modem, as an example, early versions of the help file instructed the user to search the Registry for all instances of "SM34" - a fact only mentioned in the deep recesses of a very large read.me file. Welcome to computers.
Microsoft has worked hard & long at improving Windows®' ease-of-use (let's face it - they've had to) and this has particularly extended to the details of device installation, making it as trouble-free as possible. It seems, however, that uninstallation or re-installation of the same device has not attracted the same care & attention.
It is therefore typical to find that removing a piece of software or hardware will leave all kinds of crap, in the forms of files on disc or entries within the Registry. The former (files on disc) are merely annoying but the latter (Registry entries) can prevent reinstallation. In particular, the idea is to clean the system back to the "bare metal" - removing what is causing the problem in the first place - to allow as clean an installation as possible.
What is needed for best is an Uninstall program. This may well have been provided with the original Modem driver disc - search on the hard disc for a file called "Unwise.exe" or "Uninstall.exe" (mine is called "Muninst.exe"). USR WinModems, BTW, are very prone to this problem & an uninstall program was provided with the OEM versions of win98. This program is called "wmregdel.exe" & is within the drivers\modem\3com-usr folder.