XP Home makes modem silent and slow

[LesleyPark]

My husband has upgraded my PCG-FX103 from the pre-installed Windows me to XP Home. While I was using Windows me, the modem tones from the internal modem came out through the speakers, which was a confidence boost that things were working OK, and the connection speed was usually 50kbit/s or better. Now I'm running XP (with the latest drivers from the Sony web site), the modem tones don't come out through the speakers, which is a minor annoyance, and the connection speed is down to 33.6kbit/s, which is a serious annoyance when I want to do any big downloads. The modem declares itself in Control Panel as a Conexant-AmbitSoftK56 data, Fax ICH modem.

I've also tried a Psion Dacom Gold Card V.90 in one of the PC card slots. This is also silent (which makes me suspect that the silence is something not specific to the modem), but the speed is a lot better: about 48kbit/s, which is nearly as good as I used to get with the internal modem under Windows me.

Can anyone make any helpful suggestions to get the modem tones back or (more important) to get a data rate more like the one I was getting with Windows me?

Thanks in advance for your help

Lesley Park

[kee-lo_]

If you go to Control Panel > Modems and right click your modem, you should see a slider, put it to max, and you should hear that horrible screaching noise again.

[JoeB.]

hi,
check the virtual com port of the modem and see if you can change the baud settings back to 56k or higher... you could also set modem properties to connect only at a certain speed or higher.

Joe

[ironfist241]

dont mean to be a troll but...

XP home edition... enough said

seriously if you were used to the way Me operated but crave better reliability then you might want to give windows 2000 professional a try, cos xp home has major issues.
also if you live in a broadband area, might want to give that a try, furthermore if your lucky like me and live in the greater london area you can get broadband from bulldog at some *very* competitive prices.

GR

[m3bhp]

XP in whatever guise is still a worthwhile upgrade from Me. Me was basically Win 98 Version 3 and cr@p. XP is alot more stable

[kee-lo_]

XP in whatever guise is still a worthwhile upgrade from Me. Me was basically Win 98 Version 3 and cr@p. XP is alot more stable 

Very true.

[LesleyPark]

Thanks for all the responses - this has evidently struck several chords!

To respond to the several inputs:

1. Lack of sound: I had already tried turning the sound on, with notable lack of success. However I've done a bit more poking around since then, and interestingly when I used the Psion Gold Card to set up the connection for this login, I heard the tones for the first time since the upgrade! I'll try the internal modem when I've done this to see whether the tones are audible for *that*...

2. Adjusting the data rate on the COM3 port (which is used for the internal modem): Again, thanks - I'll try some tweaking.

3. Comments on the relative merits of Windows ME (Myalgic Encephalomyopathy!), Windows 2000 and XP Home: my husband (who runs Windows 2000 on his desktop PC) originally intended to put Windows 2000 on my laptop, but found a major lack of drivers for the audio, video and touchpad, which is rather a drawback - that's why he decided to go for XP Home. Having spent pver £80 and about a week setting up the PC with XP Home, he's reluctant to turn the clock back to ME!

4. Broadband: yes, this is the longer-term solution we're aiming for. My husband has accumulated the bits to set up a home network with wireless access for my laptop (most of the computer gear is in his computer room upstairs at the front of the house, but I use my laptop downstairs at the back), and a cast-off 486DX box to install a Linux firewall distribution on, and now he's retired and has time on his hands :smileygrin: he'll be working to get that set up (now he's about finished with my laptop!). Since our telephone provider is ntl, we'll probably go for a cable modem - their broadband offering is only a bit more than we're currently paying for the second phone line and dial-up access through a freephone number.

Once again, thanks for the inputs.

Lesley Park

[kee-lo_]

Hi Lesley

Sounds like a nice setup you and your husband have, he's wise to use Windows 2000 on his desktop, as it's one of Microsoft's better offerings. I used it for over 2 and a half years on my last desktop, I only upgraded when I moved to the GRX316MP.

Very wise to use an old 486 as a firewall, well thought out :smileygrin:

I would be tempted to use the gold card for now, as it seems to be giving you a faster access speed over 56k.

I would suggest moving to NTL's cable broadband if you are happy with NTL. Personally I would use PIPEX's Xtreme Solo, it's been an excellent service to me and the parents.

HTH

[LesleyPark]

Hi Kee-lo and all

Thanks for the further post. We've tried some of the tweaks to get some sense out of the internal modem, but adjusting the speed on the virtual COM3 port doesn't seem to be possible, 'cos the device manager doesn't show the virtual COM port; the settings in the control panel/modems section are for a max speed of 115200 bit/s and speaker on, but that doesn't seem to make a lot of difference.

I've pretty well resigned myself to using the Gold Card until my husband's got the home network & broadband stoked up - then the infernal modem will be fully pensioned off, like me :smileyhappy:.

Until this weekend, we were pretty happy with ntl, but on Friday evening their DNS server went legs up, and it wasn't until this evening that it came back to life again! However I think it's probably a case of BTDYK (Better The Devil You Know)...

Cheers

Lesley Park

[kee-lo_]

Yeah best making sure you have a primary and secondary DNS in your settings so it can use both if needs be.