Modem loses connection

I use AOL (I know. I know. It sucks, just bare with me) for my ISP and I have dial-up.

For the last couple weeks, my modem has been loseing the connection frequently and has to reconnect. Sometimes it'll have to redial 3 times in five minutes. I've tried replacing the modem with a new one and I've even tried to switch to Earthlink instead of AOL, but even Earthlink can't keep the connection long enough to download the software. I thought it was an AOL software issue, but now it seems like some sort of hardware or OS (XP Pro SP2) issue. Any ideas? I don't notice anything when talking on the phone for extended periods. It just seems to be a problem when online.

PS I've had other strange occurrences lately like the mouse pointer disappearing for a minute then returning. The OS freezes for about a minute when starting up. Quite frequently when we close out AOL, we will get a "blue screen of death" which states there was a "INVALID_KERNEL_HANDLE" when it does a dump and reboots.

Thanks for your help!

Um, I'm not sure what "responsible adult" means, but I am the caretaker of technology in my household. I've never had to tweak my modems before. They've always just worked. I've been using this modem for a couple of years and it just started happening one day. That doesn't make much sense. No one but me would even know how to change the hardware settings...

And I thought the blue screen of death was eliminated in XP. Hmmm.

I use McAfee Antivirus, Ad-Aware, Spybot, Registry Mechanic. I run them regularly and they are up to date.

What about the fact that XP hangs for about 1 minute during start up and sometimes my mouse disappears for 30 seconds or so and then reappears?

Strange stuff...

I could download the image here at work, but I don't have a burner. How big is it? If it's less than 4GB I can put it on my IPOD. Or I'll just have to go to the local university and do it there.

No strange noises.

Everything seems to "sound" ok. It just hangs. The light on the front of the case doesn't hardly even flash.

Yes, I use XP's firewall.

No, I turned off my Automatic Update, trying to improve performance. I'll re-enable it when I get home. I have memtest on CD already because I ran it for about 6 hours a couple of weeks ago with no issues.

The only real change I have made recently is adding a BFG 7800GT card. I had concerns because it "required" a 400W PSU, but I am using a 380W (Antec). The word around the forums was that shouldn't cause an issue. I've never had any problems while gaming...

I'll run memtest tonight. How long does it need to run?

Thanks for your input!

Did the BSOD start occuring after you installed the new graphics card? BSOD indicates something wrong with the machine. Usually it indicates a hardware problem. You may have to remove everything except for the essentials and see where the problem is. I had a machine on the bench just last week with the same problem and it turns out the new graphics card was not seated all the way. Check that and make sure memory is seated good.

-Yes

Intel 915GEV Mobo
BFG 7800GT
P4 3.0GHZ
2x512 PC5400- Kingston HyperX
BenQ DVD Burner
Pioneer DVD-ROM
Antec 380W PSU
2- WD 120GB SATA HDD
Old 24 Bit SBLive sound Card
Creative v92 Modem
XP Pro SP2

I tried running Memtest lastnight. I could see it reading the CD and then it would flash something on the screen and reboot. It would repeat this until I took out the CD. I tried changing the Boot Priority between my to CD Drives, but it wouldn't load off of either of them. It has never done this before. I've used memtest once in the past about a month or so ago.
And right before it would reboot I think I could see something on the screen like:

"L1 Cache Unknown
L2 Cache Unknown"

...and then it would reboot.

This is messed up! Now what?

Yes, the problem would occur as soon as you installed the new card. I still think you've got a piece of hardware bad or going bad in the machine. The only real way to find out is to narrow it down.

I started running Prime95 last night after I still couldn't get memtest to work. How long do you think I should run it for? It's been running for about 8 hours and all the tests have been passed. I also download the free antivirus software and that Knoppix image. I will use those this weekend. Thanks for all of your help!


It is very odd that memtest86 won't run... hmmm...

You might want to try the installable version of memtest http://memtest86.com/memt32.zip

8 hours should be good.

You are welcome Let me know if you have any Knoppix questions!

Well there have been several storms in the area recently. So perhaps the phone company is having technical difficulties.

I suspect your phone line is experiencing problems which would explain the modem disconnects, however your computer appears to be having problems of it's own unrelated to the modem issues.

Have there been any power disruptions in your area recently?

Any lightning?

A surge projector can protect against surges however it certainly cannot protect against a direct lightning strike. An indirect lightning hit... maybe... hard to tell.

Is your onboard sound disabled? How about any other onboard devices that you are not using?

Maybe you could unplug your modem and see if that helps. If that doesn't work try removing your sound card as well and give it a shot.

I would also advise you to take a bright flashlight and visually inspect the motherboard for any leaking, bulging or exploded capacitors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Hope this helps :-)

Well I guess that's good news and bad news :-|

Good news is your RAM seems to be fine

Bad news is we do not know what is causing the problems yet :-(

If you have capacitors which have or about to fail that would explain a lot.

I'm sorry, I think I forgot to ask you if any of components are factory overclocked or if you overclocked any yourself.

Please let us know! Thanks

PS Please post some pix if you can!

PPS Have you been able to try Knoppix yet?

Hmmm.....

Factory OC components are sometimes unstable. I would suggest downloading rivatuner and setting your VGA card to stock frequencies and see if that improves stability. Also I believe rivatuner allows you to keep an eye out on temperatures as well which would be very useful to know.

I think it's worth a shot!

If your card works properly at stock you can then gradually overclock it 5MHz at a time until you find the maximum frequencies at which it is still stable.

Does your card use 2ns or 1.6ns RAM?

Good luck! :-D

Please check the numbers on the GDDR3 RAM chips and post them here.

Of course that may not be possible if there a heatsink on them.

Is your GDDR3 passively or actively cooled or not cooled at all?



Thanks!

Semper Fi Linux on!