my compaq presario 5000 is a little over a year old. it has been through two factory modems and two robotic modems. what is going to get the job done? warranty has expired, company i bought it from are a-holes.
what brand of modem can someone recommend?
Sounds like the problem is a little deeper than the modem. If you’ve been through four modems in a year then it’s likely you’ve got a short somewhere, but not necessarily in the computer. Have you had the phone company check your line in the home and at the street? If there’s a short or ground problem it’s possible you’re getting zapped by the phone company. Do the modems go bad after a storm? If so, get a UPS or surge suppressor that offers support for phone lines. Have you tried putting the modem in a different slot in the system? That may make a difference. U.S. Robotics makes pretty decent modems, I don’t see two failing in a year because of a manufacturing error.
Whatever the answer to the above questions, the problem probably isn’t the modems themselves.
If you are sure your not getting spiked somehow through your phoneline, maybe just buy an external modem and try that.
Speaking as a former Compaq owner here, are you sure that the problem’s not with your software? I ask this because the particular Compaq I had used to own had a software glitch and whenever I ran the “Quick Restore” CD my modem would quit working. I’d then have to spend days on the phone with tech support until I got to someone who knew of the problem and could tell me of the codes to type in to get the damn thing working again.
Finally, I got mad and did a clean install with a Windows 98 disk I had (instead of using the quick restore disks), and discovered that the damn thing wouldn’t work at all because Compaq uses some kind of weird proprietary drivers that Windoze doesn’t have. I then went out and bought a different modem (which turned out to be a mistake because the particular modem I got, a Zoom 3090 USB modem, has really crappy software and doesn’t work half the time).
YIKES!!!
just walked in the door with a brand new zoom modem! a model 3025. v92.
part of the problem i forgot to mention is my computer uses Me, which the robotics would not work with. Me is a pain in the ass all on its own.
the computer itself had had a major problem with rfi interference which turned out to be a dimmer switch in my home office. there is just plain something weird here, with the compaq, as you mentioned with the quick restore, i have had to use it twice.
also, i forget to mention, when i had the rfi problem the phone company was here four times before we figured it out. they really tried to help and checked all the grounding. they also gave me rfi filters to put on the phone line.
as far as the comments on proprietary computers i couldn’t agree with you more. i no more wanted one than the man in the moon but that is another nightmare of a story.
as far as getting blasted by lightning that is a very real possibility and i need better protection than i have, but i don’t think that is the current problem.
the current modem is “acting up” like a two year old child. it is the factory replacement modem for the original one that went bad. i have always had long connection times and slow download with this modem. now it only dials out about one out of every ten times.
Yes, but are these internal or external modems?
Also, my surge protectors have an input/output plug for the phone line, so I guess they protect
that too?
Handy, mine’s an external, don’t know what biker’s is. biker, if your modem’s anything like mine, you’re in for a world of “fun.”
Here’s what I’ve learned about my current modem:
1.) It doesn’t like AOL’s software, so if AOL’s your ISP consider dumping one or the other.
2.) Its incompatible with MP3 players. If I want to listen to my MP3’s while I’m surfing the web, I’m out of luck. The thing’ll throw me off-line as soon as I click play.
3.) The tech support from Zoom is worthless. You can’t talk to human being, and you have to use a weird e-mail format to ask them questions.
4.) It won’t work at all with XP.
5.) It has problems with Win98.
6.) It works (barely) with Win2K.
7.) On more than one occassion, it has gotten confused and I’ve had to unplug it to get it to reboot.
If you’ve got any more questions, e-mail me (addy’s in my profile), and I’ll do my best to help you out.
i wouldn’t be on aol if it was the only isp left it is the most overhyped company in the world. big charges, little service. do you know when you are on aol you are not connected to the internet. you are only connected to aol and what ever they want you to see. so aol is not my problem.
i bought the zoom modem because:
1 - it was not a us robotics
2 - it said it was compatable with Me
3 - box bragged about it’s fast download
4 - price was somewhat favorable
i have not installed it. i am going to do some other things first while i limp along on my compaq modem. virus check, defrag, etc.
there is just something weird about this compaq and modems.
Save yourself some hassle and just get an external USB modem for $ 25- $40 or so. If modems keeps popping it’s likely to be something in the telephone line that is allowing surges to propagate not the PC. RFI filers will not prevent this. I do not known how effective the little phone line supressors in power strips are but using one is probably better than nothing.
Just buy an external USB modem. Stay away from fake modems. IE software modems.
I don’t like USB stuff either cause USB ports are too tricky. Esp. those on Via chipset boards.
Get a real serial modem, like USR, none of that cheap stuff that promises loads of stuff.
Or search the net for the best modem to use with your ISP. I bet them AOLers have an
opinion on that in the AOL newsgroups.
btw, I live near the pacific ocean so now & then crud from the salty air eats up a phone jack
& I have to put in a new one for a few bucks. I directly wire my modem to the outside phone
jack to test it (disconnecting any other phone wires too). Its pretty easy to do that.