modem diagnostic

[Bo Borland]

I think the modem on my pc at home has crapped out .
Error msg is "no dial tone detected"
Line at the wall has a tone , line at the plug going into the modem has a tone.
Is there a diagnostic to check if it still is alive ??
It is a US RObotics V90 about a year old /

[Jude James Shiels]

Yep, go into Control Panel, Modems, and then you'll see the Diagnostics tab, click on that, your modem should be listed in either COM1 COM2 or COM3, click on the relevant one and hit the More Info button, it'll say 'communicating with modem', if information is displayed after a few moments, lots of numbers and letters and so on, it is working, if not, and you just get a blank reading, it is more than likely clapped out, hope that works for you.

[Ernie Renn]

Bo;
Do a thourough scan disk and then a defrag. Then restart your computer. On occasion my computer does this, too. After I scan and defrag it recognizes the modem. I think it gets so much stuff going that it doesn't recognize it. I'm not sure, but I don't think that modems check out that often, but I may be wrong. Good luck!

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My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com

[Jack Stoner]

My USR modem has a parallel phone jack, to plug in a telephone. Plug the phone line into the "line" jack and then plug a telephone into the "phone" jack and see if it works. That will check out the wiring and the "line" input connector.

If that all checks out, try removing and then reinstalling the modem. (If you have WIN 95/98 after you 'remove' the modem and restart it should automatically detect the modem and reinstall the software for it).

If that doesn't work the modem may be trashed. Did you have any power surges or lightning lately?? The modem may still be under warranty, contact 3Com/USR

[Bo Borland]

Thanks for the replies neighbors. I will do all of the above tonite.
Jack, there were no power surges that I know of, my modem has always connected at a slower than usual speed which I attribute to the distance from the switching building,
I am never connected at over 21,600, seldom at 28,000.
The modem was showing speeds of only 14k , usually only on rainy days, then it was always at 14 k for a couple days straight then , crapped out .
I will post again on monday if nothing worked , otherwise if I fix it, it will be sooner.
Thnx



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Bo Borland
All my gear is "vintage" now.

[Jack Stoner]

Does other modems, using that same telco line, connect at similar speeds or do they connect at higher speeds?? 14.4 and even 28.8 is abnormally slow. The telco line has really got to be trashy and have several repeaters on it to slow it down that much. How about the house wiring (inside wiring from the telco demarc to the modem). Have you tried it from a different location in the house to make sure the slow speed is not a problem in that particular line connection.

But with the original symptom of not detecting the line, I'd suspect the modem is trashed.

[Rich Paton]

Bo, I have the Robotics Sportster V90 Voice Fax modem. I have the drivers if you suspect that.
Here is a good modem test/info web page: http://www.computingcentral.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest50.asp
dr_electron@hotmail.com<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Rich Paton on 06 May 2000 at 06:15 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Bo Borland]

Tryed evrything so far, even listened to the modem components with a stethoscope. The speaker is sizzling .
Bought a new Motorola 56k v90 , trying to install . loaded drivers etc, still no dial tone .
going to switch wire lead, then try another phone line
wish me luck .