Installing an Unknown Modem
Thanks to Paul Doty who sent this in to
me.
First look at the card edge connector. A ISA
card will have tenth of an inch spacing and a PCI card will
have half that. A PCI connector uses smaller connector parts.
Isa card modems are usually hardware modems. This means
they are complete “little computers” You can send AT commands
to them with a terminal program and the modem will send
back responses. A PCI card is often a software modem. The
hardware on the card is only part of a modem, windows will
detect it as a “PCI controller” or a unknown . to get this
to do anything you must install software. Look at the chips
on the modem for “lucent”. The software for a lucent chip
set will run on any modem with this chip regardless who
made the modem. See www.56k.com for more info on finding
a place to download the software, There are many versions
available. To install the software point the system to the
INF file in the software package. Some times windows will
find the inf file without your direct help. If not, use
have disk, browse, or update driver buttons. The INF file
often contains install procedures for several things. Windows
will present a list of the things the file can install .
Choose one that you think might work . May need to try several
INF ‘s to find the best one.
To install a ISA card modem in the computer:
There two types, Plug and Play and switches/jumpers. Set
the switches for com 3 and put the card in the computer.
Turn it on and go to the BIOS setup program and disable
com 1/serial A. This disables the 9 pin serial connector
on the back of the computer and frees up the IRQ 4 so com
3 can use it. Then let windows boot and install com 3 if
it is not present in device manager. Control panel, add
new hardware, NO- select from list, ports. Then go to control
panel, modems and let windows try to detect the modem. Windows
95 came with many INF files for 28800 and older hardware
modems. As a last resort you can install as a 2400 std modem
and use hyperterminal to send the Ati commands to the modem
to find out more info on the modem. Modem -diagnostics will
also display the Ati responses wen you click “more info”.
Use these Ati responses to find the proper drivers as described
at modern help sites like 56k.com.
A Plug n Play ISA modem will install on a
com port’s resources and conflict . When windows asks for
a driver use browse to find the inf folder in windows and
choose “std 28800 modem”. The com port must be disabled
in device manager to resolve this conflict. Of course, the
IRQ must be freed up by disabling a ext com/serial port
in BIOS as well. If the PnP feature fails do a forced setting
to set the modem resources to IRQ 3 or 4. See the Help,
troubleshooting for details under IRQ conflicts. PnP appears
to be added to win95 as a after thought so it acts a bit
strange. After the forced setting windows will ask to restart.
Click Yes. Windows will restart with out a BIOS detect and
send a signal to the PnP card to set the IRQ. Go to control
panel, modems, diagnostics, more info to see the Ati responses.
Use these to find a driver on the Web. Install the driver
by clicking update driver in device manager.
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