> I'm fixing a friends PC for him, and his modem is not working. It is an
> Archtek (or SmartLink) 5634BTS, known as a a 56K (V.90 and X2) Video
> Ready modem. It's ISA and has jumpers which allow either manual comport
> selection
> or PnP mode. The computer is using Win98 (not second edition).\ and he
> has AOL.
>
> What happens is this: The modem used to work fine. Gradually, he devloped
> problem after problem and reinstalled the OS. At that point, after
> reinstalling the OS and modem driver, the modem worked fine for a little
> while and then stopped (I'm not sure what the exact symptome was at that
> point). I think it stopped after the first time the computer was rebooted.
>
> I then tried to reinstall the modem drivers. When I do so, it installs
> fine and win98 lists it under modems. However, if you click the "more
> info" button, win98 says it cannot communicate with the modem (after a
> long pause of trying).
>  AOL says it cannot locate any modems. When I use hyperterminal to access
> it directly, it responds to an AT withe "boot>" and no other AT commands
> seem to work. I have never seen a modem act like this.


Skewer clove of garlic on sharp stick, hold in front of computer while
burning incense and intoning "Bill gates , Bill Gates, ...".
Knowing the secret names of a machine MAY give you power over them but such
are usually too far gone.
In which case you should burn modem and or PC and/or Bill gates at an
X-Window at midnight.

No specific ideas but check along these lines.
May be conflict with internal com port.
See how it is being identified by computer.
See if there is another port on same location.

During 1st part of boot most PCs will usually (depending on brand) show
hardware detail on screen including memory size and serial and  parallel
port addresses. Pause key will usually freeze this to give you more time to
see it. Check that this  contains address for ALL serial ports that you
EXPECT to see. if it has two when the modem is not installed then it should
have THREE when the modem is installed. If not then you definitely have
hardware level problems. This works for ISA pnp modems but not for PCI which
don't have any brains until told who they think they are.

Check that the serial port appears in Device Manager.

Modems in control panel should show modem and if you click the diagnostic
tag and then the icon of the modem and then "more info" it should do a
diagnostic read and tell you more about the modem.

Disabling the onboard serial ports MAY help.
This is usually possible via settings at startup.
One may be for the mouse unless it is PS/2 style. Disable all possible
serial ports to start (ie both onboard COM ports if mouse is PS/2 - only one
if mouse is serial. (You can run much but not all of Windows with no mouse
but it's not nice.).

Check IRQ usage if you can control it.
Dynalink "strongly recommend"
        Modem to COM3, IRQ4
        Mouse on COM2

do this if you can.

Older pnp cards can have their own pnp managers to set their addresses and
irqs and it may be you have to talk to the card directly somehow (unlikely).

Is it in pnp rather than manual ISA mode?

Win 98 SE is meant to work magic for WIN98 "1st edition" problems - dunno if
it applies here.

OK - that should be enough false leads to keep you busy for a while longer
:-)

An external modem is a good cure for such things but may be financially
unattractive.
Remember that a 56K modem is often not very if at all superior to a 33k or
even a 28K. Old "slow" modems are usually quite cheap. A working 33k modem
has a much larger data throughput than a faulty 56k :-).At least, going to
another modem will allow you to establish whether the rest of the system is
functional.



    `Russell McMahon

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