Customer's laptop modem stopped working one day

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

eno@pdxconnect.com wrote:
> Boy is this dumb. Customer complains that his HP Pavilion N5420 laptop
> modem just stopped working one day. Sure enough, it connects fine
> between 40 and 51k every time, (to two different ISPs), it gets DHCP
> assignment of IP and DNS info just fine, but it will NOT talk to the
> network once connected. Ping, tracert, etc. all fail with timeout
> errors.
>
> Yet, go into Hyperterminal, dial out to a modem somewhere, and sure
> enough, it works just like a modem should work. Communicates just fine
> in ascii. It just doesn't seem to be interested in passing network
> packets. Yeah, right.
>
> Lap is running ME (yippee!). I've now reinstalled at least a couple of
> different drivers for the on-board modem (ESS ES2828 chipset). Have
> reinstalled ME on top of the existing ME. Have uninstalled and
> reinstalled TCP/IP; have in fact completely cleaned out Network
> components and reinstalled, to no avail. Have run a couple of
> different registry checkers, fixed numerous 'problems', no change.
> Defaulted the bios. Added a pcmcia network card successfully, and at
> that point the lap passed packets quite happily, which would seem to
> prove the tcp stack is in fact functional. It just doesn't seem to
> function on the modem. I can't believe it.
>
> I've seen this happen where reinstalling tcp/ip fixes the problem (on
> 9x systems, very common) but I've never seen a modem which seems so
> willing to work, connect, talk in ascii, and yet fails in all the
> net-related functions.
>
> I'm about to add another modem to try that out; short of wiping and
> reinstalling the disk, I'm coming up short on ideas here.
>
> Any wisdom out there? Yeah, I know, lose ME. Customer doesn't want to
> spend more money on OS though.

Check what protocols are installed and/or bound to the dial-up adapter.
ISTR if other protocols are installed/bound to other network interfaces,
then win9x (not sure about ME) will - by default - bind temselves to the
modem and give you grief (modem trying to negotiate netbeui or IPX with
the ISP).

--
...

I am not a marketing target ... I am a free man.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

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Hi Eno,

Ran into a similar problem with a clients computer a few months ago.
The person he bought the machine from was running a proxy server. It
could find the server it wanted to see and would not communicate
with the outside world. I uninstalled the proxy server, and
everything worked after that.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
He esteems too lightly

eno@pdxconnect.com wrote:
> Boy is this dumb. Customer complains that his HP Pavilion N5420 laptop
> modem just stopped working one day. Sure enough, it connects fine
> between 40 and 51k every time, (to two different ISPs), it gets DHCP
> assignment of IP and DNS info just fine, but it will NOT talk to the
> network once connected. Ping, tracert, etc. all fail with timeout
> errors.
>
> Yet, go into Hyperterminal, dial out to a modem somewhere, and sure
> enough, it works just like a modem should work. Communicates just fine
> in ascii. It just doesn't seem to be interested in passing network
> packets. Yeah, right.
>
> Lap is running ME (yippee!). I've now reinstalled at least a couple of
> different drivers for the on-board modem (ESS ES2828 chipset). Have
> reinstalled ME on top of the existing ME. Have uninstalled and
> reinstalled TCP/IP; have in fact completely cleaned out Network
> components and reinstalled, to no avail. Have run a couple of
> different registry checkers, fixed numerous 'problems', no change.
> Defaulted the bios. Added a pcmcia network card successfully, and at
> that point the lap passed packets quite happily, which would seem to
> prove the tcp stack is in fact functional. It just doesn't seem to
> function on the modem. I can't believe it.
>
> I've seen this happen where reinstalling tcp/ip fixes the problem (on
> 9x systems, very common) but I've never seen a modem which seems so
> willing to work, connect, talk in ascii, and yet fails in all the
> net-related functions.
>
> I'm about to add another modem to try that out; short of wiping and
> reinstalling the disk, I'm coming up short on ideas here.
>
> Any wisdom out there? Yeah, I know, lose ME. Customer doesn't want to
> spend more money on OS though.
>
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