Modem problem - you will have to be good to figure this one out...

[ddeder]

I am trying to install an internal modem into a Compaq 9548 (100 MHz Pentium). I have no idea what speed this modem is but it says US ROBOTICS Sportster 0460 on the back of it. I checked US ROBOTICS website and it has to be either 33.6 or 56 but I have no idea how to tell which one.

I found a couple of drivers on the internet which supposedly support the Sportster 0460 modem. I put them on a floppy disk and when I go to install the modem I get a list of modems to choose from. I tried every driver for every internal modem and every time I get the same error message - modem failed to respond, etc...

Being this is an old computer/modem, I am wondering if I have an IRQ conflict or something along those lines.

When I go into the bios and look at the communications section I see that serial port 1 is disabled. Parallel port is set to:

378-37F, 778-77A, IRQ 7, DMA 3 (I really have no idea what these numbers mean). Do I need to change this setting? Why would these settings ever be changed?

The modem does have jumpers on it. It appears that one jumper sets the IRQ and is set on 7. The other jumpers set the COM and I just left these jumpers alone. I did not change any of the jumpers from the way they were set on the other computer.

This modem plugs into an ISA slot. When I removed the old modem from the Compaq computer, I found that there a 3 ISA slots on one side of the mobo and 1 ISA slot on the other side of the mobo (the mobo is mounted on a panel in the middle of the case). The original modem was in the ISA slot that was by itself. I had a hard time getting this modem out as there is a large metal piece attached to it that made it difficult to extract without damaging one of those battery thingys on the mobo. I did finally get it out without any damage. Rather than use that ISA slot for the new modem, I put it in one of the three on the other side. Does this make any differnce?? The computer does recognize the new hardware when I boot and asks if I want to install it.

I am running Windows 98 SE.


I know this modem works because it came out of another computer where it was working fine. Unfortunately, the HD on that computer has been formatted so I cannot get any info from it.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[GregMal]

I'll give it a shot.
You state the LPT (printer) port is set to IRQ7.
You state the Modem jumpers are set to IRQ7.
May be a conflict here.
Since it's an older internal ISA modem with jumpers, I'd try to
install it manually.
Set the jumpers to COM2, IRQ3. This is a normal modem setting.
Put the modem in an ISA slot and boot up the PC.
When you get the info box showing windows has detected new hardware
tell windows you want to manually install.
First manually install the Com2 port with IRQ3. Then manually install
the modem, tell windows it's on Com2, when windows asks for drivers
direct it to the floppy (drivers you downloaded).
Reboot and give it a try.........
Greg

 

[Darkluck]

ok, here's a quick lesson on IRQs....every major hardware component in your system has an IRQ, they need IRQs to be able to "talk" to the processor. If your IRQs are conflicting, one or more of those devices will not be able to "talk" to the processor, thus the computer recognizes there are devices on the bus but because of the incorrect information your cpu can not begin a "dialogue" with your modem. Find an available IRQ through by searching through the device manager and jumper your modem to that IRQ. Next check the com ports to see which is available and jumper the com port to an empty one. Or you can change your parallel port setting to something else that is available. Good Luck!

 

[ddeder]

Thanks for the advice. I changed the jumpers on the modem to use COM2, IRQ 3 and this worked like a charm.

Just out of curiosity, what is all that stuff in the bios beneath the parallel port:

378-37F, 778-77A, IRQ 7, DMA 3

Any idea what would require that these settings be changed (for instance, a different modem or a different ISA slot)? Just wondering...

Thanks again.

 

[copyfixer]

The 378... etc is memory addresses, the IRQ is the interrupt line, the DMA is direct memory address. These are industry standard do not change unless you have to. I haven't run into an instance to require changing yet.