Freezing when dialling up

[Newsreader]

Had this problem for ages but it's driven me mad today :(

I very rarely shut down my PC but whenever I do, after the restart, I have trouble dialling up to the net. I hit the 'connect' button then the screen freezes, and all I can do is turn off the CPU and restart (bad I know ... ) Usually after about 4 or 5 attempts it finally gets a dial tone and dials up fine. Then no problem till the next time I shut down.

Get the same response from Fax and Dialer, so I'm assuming it's something to do with the modem 'waking up' after a restart ... ? :rolleyes:

It's a Dell desktop, Win XP, 56k internal modem, I'm on 24/7 dial-up with Virgin. :dunno:

[amun1000]

You could check the strenght of the signal on the line - if you have too many extensions then this degrades quality. Each unit/phone has a ren of 1 and I htink the maximum is 4


Also check the extension cables


Are you broadband or dial up?

[Newsreader]

Thanks amun. I'm on dial-up. Would the quality of the line make the PC freeze though? I'm puzzled as to how it only ever does it after a restart, rest of the time it's fine :rolleyes:

[amun1000]

did a bit of trwaling and came across this:

Since WinModems are entirely controlled by the CPU, the processor can get so "busy" running it that it "forgets" everything else. The optimum solution is either a hardware modem card, an external modem, or that happy medium, a modem built on the Intel HaM (hardware-assisted modem) chipset -- a decent mix of hardware and software.

Before you go changing it out, though, I would try downloading the newest drivers from the modem chipset manufacturer. You can usually get the brand information via the Modems item in the Control Panel or in the Device Manager.









I think its best to update the drivers and notuse XP drivers for the modem - then if it still persists borrow someones modem and try and use it on you r system and see if the problems re-occur.

I always found (in the days of dialup) external modems were a lot more reliable than onboard/internal ones

Andrew

[Newsreader]

Thanks Andrew, it's an Intel, I'll see about updating the drivers. The modem definitely uses a lot of resource - even at the best of times, when it's dialing everything else has to wait ... :rolleyes: