Desktop Conundrum

[The Mute Monk]

I purchased a tower desktop quite awhile ago from a friend, and it worked fine...until recently.

Now, I live in the country, so I am forced to live with 56K dial-up. On this particular machine, every time I try to use the modem to dial, it says that the modem is already in use.

Thus, I checked the modem: under "Attached To" it says "Not Present" (it's a U.S. Robotics 56K piece)...odd because I know that it works and is installed properly. I updated all drivers, same message.

Then I checked the COM ports. it lists 3 LPT Printer ports, a Print-to-File port, and 4 COM ports. When I try to configure any of the COM ports, it says that the port "may be in use or may not exist". I have the results from PortReporter, a Windows service that I downloaded...but I couldn't make any sense of them. If you want me to post them, I will.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Ask your mommy to get off the phone, and then try again.

[squibbles]

I occasionally have this problem myself. What OS are you using?

[The Mute Monk]

Ask your mommy to get off the phone, and then try again.

Thanks for the sarcasm...your cynicism helped the situation enormously.

@ squibbles: The computer in question uses Windows XP Home Edition SP2

[squibbles]

oh, I don't know if I can help then...I'm on vista when it goes to shit (of course). What fixes it for me, is a reboot, and if it's still happening, open a program that needs a connection that isn't an internet browser (i.e. Skype), and connect through that. I don't know if that'll work for you though...

[The Mute Monk]

No, didn't solve the problem. When I go into connections and hit properties on the appropriate icon, it says the modem is "removed" and is an "unavailable device".

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Ask your mommy to get off the phone, and then try again.

Thanks for the sarcasm...your cynicism helped the situation enormously.

@ squibbles: The computer in question uses Windows XP Home Edition SP2

Using dialup relies on your telephone line being open. If your mommy is using the phone and hears funny noises when you try to connect, you need to ask her to finish her conversation and hang up before your dialup will work.

[The Mute Monk]

I would like to assert that your view of my intelligence is both inaccurate and slightly insulting, and would further like to request that your extended participation in this thread be postponed unless you have a solution to the actual problem (which is stated in my first post).

Thanks.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I would like to assert that your view of my intelligence is both inaccurate and slightly insulting, and would further like to request that your extended participation in this thread be postponed unless you have a solution to the actual problem (which is stated in my first post).

Thanks.

Every time I've had issues with dialup using a similar setup with which any other kind of network connection would work just fine on the software side, the problem has almost invariably been on the hardware side. Either I was plugging in to a non-functional telephone line, or it was in use. The fact that you haven't said anything about hardware makes me think that that might be an overlooked issue.
I would recommend that you check that the phone line you're plugging into works, that no one else is using the line, or whatever other potentially trivial hardware-related issue, as those are usually the most annoying and frequent.

[jean-luc]

I would like to assert that your view of my intelligence is both inaccurate and slightly insulting, and would further like to request that your extended participation in this thread be postponed unless you have a solution to the actual problem (which is stated in my first post).

Thanks.

Every time I've had issues with dialup using a similar setup with which any other kind of network connection would work just fine on the software side, the problem has almost invariably been on the hardware side. Either I was plugging in to a non-functional telephone line, or it was in use. The fact that you haven't said anything about hardware makes me think that that might be an overlooked issue.
I would recommend that you check that the phone line you're plugging into works, that no one else is using the line, or whatever other potentially trivial hardware-related issue, as those are usually the most annoying and frequent.

He's repeatedly noted the issue of the DM listing it as unavailable, which pretty surely indicates that this is an issue before the telephone line.

The Mute Monk, you mentioned it was a 56k USR job. Is it an external modem connected via serial? Although this is not really a solution to your problem, I would highly recommend upgrading to a newer modem like the USR5637 (external, USB, US$50) or the USR5670 (internal, PCI, US$20). They're much less likely to give you trouble.

You mentioned that the DM lists the serial ports as in use or nonexistent? If the serial ports are on an expansion card (like a PCI or ISA serial controller), try reseating the card (pull it out and put it back in) to check for connection issues. You might also try reinstalling drivers for the card. If the serial ports are motherboard-integrated, check if the motherboard vendor has a driver for the serial ports (they probably don't).
if driver updates are out of the question (a driver issue is unlikely, but relatively easy to fix) my next guess would be a resource conflict, but resource conflicts are virtually unheard of in modern computers due to plug-n-play. Do you have any ISA expansion cards (ISA slots are black and a little bigger than PCI. the gold contacts on the card edge will be very large compared to PCI or AGP)? are you aware of any devices in your computer that have their resources configured manually (most likely older components)? have you been poking around in your BIOS lately?

I'm guessing at your technical experience, so if you need me to expand more or give specific instructions on anything don't hesitate to ask.

[The Mute Monk]

@ Tsukatu: thanks for the clarification, and sorry that I misunderstood your intentions. The phone line works fine and nobody else is using it.

@ jean-luc: My modem is internal, using a PCI slot. To my knowledge, the ports are motherboard-integrated, so I'll check for a driver update on that. As for ISA slots, the board has none that I can see. The computer is relatively modern (a slightly modified eMachines H6423), and I see no manually configured devices. And finally, I don't poke around with my BIOS. I know enough to know that I don't know enough about it to poke around.

[ninja143]

Um im not sure if this is any help with this situation because I work for a campus wide computing center that helps with internet related issues but not really modem issues, sometimes what ive had to do is go into CMD prompt and do a ipconfig/renew or release (you can try either) but sometimes if you have a connection that shows up it may need to be renewed, but from the sounds of it its something else. but you could check ipconfig/all and see if your getting any type of connection. sometimes its there and the computer doesnt recognize it.

I do hope you find what the issue is. Good Luck.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I work for a campus wide computing center

Impossible; you're a girl. I'm giving you a warn the next time you tell blatant lies.

[Vyacheslav]

I work for a campus wide computing center

Impossible; you're a girl. I'm giving you a warn the next time you tell blatant lies.

Your comments in this thread are more obnoxious than funny.

To the OP: Go into your BIOS when you start up, and see if you can disable your serial port, (I assume you don't have anything connected to it; its a legacy port used by ancient mice, PDAs, etc.).

[Chase]

Pro-tip, keep your OS fully updated to make everything work correctly ;)

Go download SP3 and see if it fixes anything.