Modem Stalls and then...

[Guest]

Hi everybody,
I have a problem with my Agere Systems AC’97 Modem (driver- 2.1.51.0
date-¾/2005). I have a Compaaq Presario +3000 running a fully patched Windows
XP SP2 home edition OS.
Here’s the problem: When I connect to the Internet, the modem (or maybe the
connection?) will randomly stall and not transmit any data. After about 30 to
45 seconds it will resume. It doesn’t matter what website and/or game I may
be playing. Also, this happens when I boot using diagnostic mode in msconfig
or logged into my guest account. I ran McAfee anti-virus and two on-line
virus scanners - clean. I ran Spybot and three on-line spy ware checkers -
clean. This happens whether the firewall is turned on or off. I feel no
excessive heat coming from my laptop. I also always delete temp Internet
files, cookies, and off-line content. I ran disk cleanup and defrag.
Currently in trying to eliminate the problem, I turned the port speed down
to 38400. I turned off .V90. I reduced the FIFO buffers, ran modem diagnostic
- ok, turn of data compression, flow control, protocol. I have not resource
conflicts. And device manager has no yellow “?†or red “xâ€.
My CPU hardly gets over 4 to 5% usage. But I noticed that the high usage
periods near 100% do NOT correspond to the times when the modem stalls nor do
the low times near 0%.
In between each trouble shooting step, I cold booted my system.

 

[AndyP]

Hi everybody,
I have a problem with my Agere Systems AC'97 Modem (driver- 2.1.51.0
date-¾/2005). I have a Compaaq Presario +3000 running a fully patched
Windows
XP SP2 home edition OS.
Here's the problem: When I connect to the Internet, the modem (or maybe
the
connection?) will randomly stall and not transmit any data. After about 30
to
45 seconds it will resume. It doesn't matter what website and/or game I
may
be playing. Also, this happens when I boot using diagnostic mode in
msconfig
or logged into my guest account. I ran McAfee anti-virus and two on-line
virus scanners - clean. I ran Spybot and three on-line spy ware checkers -
clean. This happens whether the firewall is turned on or off. I feel no
excessive heat coming from my laptop. I also always delete temp Internet
files, cookies, and off-line content. I ran disk cleanup and defrag.
Currently in trying to eliminate the problem, I turned the port speed down
to 38400. I turned off .V90. I reduced the FIFO buffers, ran modem
diagnostic
- ok, turn of data compression, flow control, protocol. I have not
resource
conflicts. And device manager has no yellow "?" or red "x".
My CPU hardly gets over 4 to 5% usage. But I noticed that the high usage
periods near 100% do NOT correspond to the times when the modem stalls nor
do
the low times near 0%.
In between each trouble shooting step, I cold booted my system.

Stating the obvious but can you test with another modem or computer?

Andy

 

[Niall Leonard]

Stating the obvious but can you test with another modem or computer?

Andy

A similar problem occurred for me years ago when i used to use a
modem. It turned out the ISP had changed its handshaking routine and
didn't like the way the modem said 'hello'. Half the time or more it
the modem would stall and nothing would get through.

If the OP has checked and rechecked all the hardware I'd talk to the
ISP.

nl

 

[Guest]

Stating the obvious but can you test with another modem or computer?

Andy

Hi Andy,
That's a very good question. The modem is integrated into the motherboard of
the laptop I have. It's actually a chipset on the motherboard. I can't remove
it. I only can disable it and use an external modem. But I don't own any
external modems nor can I find anybody local that can lend me one to try.
Black Wolf Standing

 

[Guest]

A similar problem occurred for me years ago when i used to use a
modem. It turned out the ISP had changed its handshaking routine and
didn't like the way the modem said 'hello'. Half the time or more it
the modem would stall and nothing would get through.

If the OP has checked and rechecked all the hardware I'd talk to the
ISP.

nl

Hi Niall,
I do have two desktop computers that I use, but they are getting old and
don't even meet XP's minimum requirements. Those I can connect and have no
problems with.
So I really don't think it's my ISP. BTW, my ISP is Netzero.
Black Wolf Standing

 

[AndyP]

Hi Andy,
That's a very good question. The modem is integrated into the motherboard
of
the laptop I have. It's actually a chipset on the motherboard. I can't
remove
it. I only can disable it and use an external modem. But I don't own any
external modems nor can I find anybody local that can lend me one to try.
Black Wolf Standing

Ok then sounds like it could be motherboard PCI bus issue. When a device
uses the PCI bus it gets a given time and then must release the bus; if a
device hogs the bus for greater than the alotted time the device waiting to
get 'on the bus' will miss its turn and appear to eb not working. In the
BIOS you should check to see if there is an option called 'Delayed PCI
Transaction' set this to enabled.

This very same issue caused my broadband PCI modem to lose sync every time a
sound played on the computer as the Soundblaster sound card was hogging the
PCI bus.

Andy

 

[Guest]

Ok then sounds like it could be motherboard PCI bus issue. When a device
uses the PCI bus it gets a given time and then must release the bus; if a
device hogs the bus for greater than the alotted time the device waiting to
get 'on the bus' will miss its turn and appear to eb not working. In the
BIOS you should check to see if there is an option called 'Delayed PCI
Transaction' set this to enabled.

This very same issue caused my broadband PCI modem to lose sync every time a
sound played on the computer as the Soundblaster sound card was hogging the
PCI bus.

Andy

Hi Andy,
You may be right. I'm search the internet, and there seems to be some talk
about the Athon-XP processor having some problems with the the PCI bus. I may
be that other products within this Compaq also may have problems. I'm going
to try and disable different hardware and see if that helps. If it does, this
would be a strickly hardware issue that I won't be able to correct. All I can
hope for is new drivers to come out that may be able to circumvent or handle
the problem better. If something else comes up that we didn't talk about,
I'll let you know.
Black Wolf Standing