Cannot Detect my modem

[Alex]

I just reformatted my computer and my computer wont detect my modem at all
any idea why?

 

[Mark Adams]

I just reformatted my computer and my computer wont detect my modem at all
any idea why?

Have you installed all of the hardware drivers?

 

[Alex]

It also wont detect my local Area Connection...

 

[Alex]

Have you installed all of the hardware drivers?

Im not sure which drivers i need, thats why I need the internet to find out.

 

[Alex]

It is a bell modem which is plug and play.

 

[Mark Adams]

It is a bell modem which is plug and play.

What you need to do is download the drivers and save them to a flash drive
or burn to CD BEFORE you reformat the computer. It would have been much
easier then. Obviously, you are posting here from a working computer; use
this one to download the drivers.

Go to the website of the maker of your computer and get the drivers for your
model computer. Once you have them all, save to a flash drive and copy to
your computer. Install the chipset driver first.

 

[Bob I]

:





Im not sure which drivers i need, thats why I need the internet to find out.

If you don't have the CD for them, you make one before you flush the
hard drive.

 

[sgopus]

You will need to look for the cd that contains the Motherboard drivers, just
because it says plug and play doesn't mean it doesn't need drivers,
especially when the modem is part of the motherboard.
Please list your Computer type and Model if it's a brand name.
if not list your Motherboard model and type, maybe we can suggest where to
look for the drivers

 

[Jim]

It also wont detect my local Area Connection...

Drivers ?

 

[Alex]

How exactly do I find out what kind of motherboard I have heh...

 

[Paul]

How exactly do I find out what kind of motherboard I have heh...

You can use Belarc Advisor.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

This is the section from Advisor for my system. The motherboard
description is under "Main Circuit Board". Mine is an Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2
(or was, until I replaced it).

"Main Circuit Board
Board: 4CoreDual-SATA2.
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P2.00 05/22/2008"

Note - do *not* just copy and paste all the output from Belarc, into
a new posting. Belarc includes in the listing, the license key(s) for
your software. Remove any license key information from the output,
before doing anything with it. (For example, I saved my Belarc output
to disk, then went into the file and X'd out the sensitive information,
so that I can never, by accident, post that information.)

Also, knowing just the motherboard name, isn't the total answer.
We could still be totally lost as to what computer that has come
from. You should have some idea what kind of computer it is, like
a "Dell Dimension 8400" or the like. If at all possible, post
the kind of computer like "Dell Dimension 8400", as well as the
motherboard name.

Some computers like that, have a "Service Tag" printed on a label
on the computer. Entering the Service Tag, on the manufacturer's site,
may help identify the computer. That is, if you can't find any
other identifying marks to work with. For example, you could
use the "Service Tag" to find drivers.

Paul

 

[Alex]

Board: MSI MS-7160 20A
Bus ClockL 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 080012 08/31/2005

My cousin built the computer so it isn't a manufactured computer.

 

[Paul]

Board: MSI MS-7160 20A
Bus ClockL 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 080012 08/31/2005

My cousin built the computer so it isn't a manufactured computer.

P4N SLI MS-7160 revision2.

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=manual&maincat_no=1&prod_no=197

You can compare the picture of the motherboard, to what is inside your
computer if you want. Notice how "P4N SLI" is printed next to the
green DIMM slots.

http://www.msi.com/uploads/prod_0358b85dcad439a344d3047d3c122bb8.jpg

*******

There is nothing to suggest a modem interface is right on the
motherboard itself.

When you connect your dial-up line, where do you plug
it in ? Do you plug into a faceplate in the PCI slot
area on the back of the computer ?

Check your Belarc output, to see if it makes any reference
to "modem" or not ?

It could be, there is a modem card plugged into a PCI slot,
and you'd need to identify that, to find a driver for it.
A "Winmodem" type card, has no intelligence to speak of,
and the driver is responsible for digital signal processing,
to convert the modem tones into data. A card with a "data pump",
on the other hand, needs much less in the way of a driver, and
the PCI card does most of the work.

In this Belarc example, there is a modem listed.

http://don-lewis.net/Belarc.htm

"Communications
Conexant D850 56K V.9x DFVc Modem"

And even that might not be enough to locate a driver. The box the
modem came in, might label it with an actual model number and
manufacturer name. "Conexant" in this case, makes the main chips
in the modem, but probably did not make the card itself.

Electronic identification of devices in an unambiguous way, isn't
easy. I don't really have any tool suggestions I really like,
for figuring out what hardware you've got. Another tool is
Everest, but for the free version, it takes a lot of brain
power and searching, to convert the information into
something useful. If you have a product box, manual,
documentation, anything that has the make and model number
of the modem, that might be as useful as anything you can
get from an identification utility.

Paul

 

[Alex]

Hey thanks a lot for the help, under Communications there is none detected
sooo..

 

[Paul]

Hey thanks a lot for the help, under Communications there is none detected
sooo..

Do you see where on the computer the phone line plugs into an RJ-11
modem connector ?

This is a picture of a computer with a modem card present. The card
could have one or two connectors on it. (In the picture, the red outline
is drawn around the modem card faceplate.) The card has two connectors,
as that card allows connecting the phone to the end of the line via
one connector, and the connection to the wall is via the other connector.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o195/aonfocaleile/pcicard.jpg

If the thing looks like that, then the card is likely on the PCI bus.

Another form factor, is the audio modem riser slot, but I don't think
your motherboard has one of those.

In this photo, the short brown slot in the middle of the photo is an AMR slot.
It uses motherboard audio for the interface for the modem as far as I know.

http://www.maximopc.org/images/articulos/5/agppro.jpg

There is an example of an AMR card that plugs into that slot here.

http://www.abouterp.com/erpsystemswordsa/images/AMR.jpg

I don't know how an AMR is registered in the system, and
what you'd see in Device Manager for that.

Other means of connecting modems, are via external modems,
I have a USR external, and it connects via 9 pin RS232 cable,
to the back of the computer. Basically, that modem is connected
to a serial port. If my modem was switched off (which it is
right now), there is no way to detect it. My system remembers
that such a modem was connected though, so it is not completely
forgotten.

(Modem that connects to serial port.)

http://content.etilize.com/300/10005730.jpg

A modem can also be connected via a USB cable, and that would be
an external unit as well.

*******

OK, so you can use your eyes, and take a guess as to what kind of
modem you think it is. If the modem is "external" to the computer,
that should be easy to figure out. If the modem is internal to the
computer, it could be AMR or PCI based. For PCI, download and install
this.

Everest Free Edition (from Lavalys)
http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Install it, and then run the tool. Go to DevicesCI Devices and
look through the list. Is there a modem shown there ? Are
there any items that say "NoDB". Things like that are not
recognized by the program, so it can't give a nice text
name to the product it sees. If your hardware is old enough,
the program should get most of it. Lavalys charges for their
latest software, so that version is the last completely free
version.

I don't hold out much hope of identifying the thing with a program,
so if you get bored with this approach, take the cover off the machine
and have a closer look at where that RJ-11 connector goes.

If the modem is an external device, and it is not longer connected,
that'll make it pretty hard to detect

Paul

 

[Alex]

Hey thanks for all your help, The first link you gave me with the SLI drivers
worked great and everything is running awesome. I appreciate all the help you
have provided me.

 

[Alex]

scratch that it doesnt work... I installed the mobo driver and it still wont
detect the modem. My computer only has a slot for ethernet not the phone line
plug.My computer doesnt have a modem card I dont think? I installed the
ethernet driver and it still wont detect my internet... And I am not going to
lie that last post you added has me a little confused.

 

[Paul]

scratch that it doesnt work... I installed the mobo driver and it still wont
detect the modem. My computer only has a slot for ethernet not the phone line
plug.My computer doesnt have a modem card I dont think? I installed the
ethernet driver and it still wont detect my internet... And I am not going to
lie that last post you added has me a little confused.

Well, in one of my posts, I tried to give examples of modems. There are
a couple types that install inside the computer. There are a couple types
that install outside the computer. If the modem was a card installed inside
the computer, there would be an RJ-11 connector with a telephone icon next
to it.

If you had a dialup modem that was external, you unplugged it and put it
away, then after a new install of Windows, there would be no memory of
that modem.

As an example, I have an external modem. It is currently not connected.
Yet, if I run Everest, it mentions the name of the modem that used to be
connected. Now, if I was to reinstall the OS right now, then the next
time I run Everest, the modem would no longer be mentioned. I would
have to connect it, power it up, install the driver, and then I would
see it enumerated in the Everest output again.

Internal hardware is different, in the sense that it is always powered
as long as it is sitting in the computer. And then it is more likely
to show up in Device Manager, with an "!" next to the entry, if the
driver hasn't been installed yet. You can see some examples of messed
up stuff in this Device Manager picture.

(The yellow color, means trouble...)

http://i44.tinypic.com/22kpbd.png

When you install motherboard drivers, that will take care of the devices
right on the motherboard. If you've installed any cards in the expansion
slots, such as a video card, or an internal modem card, the driver for
that would come from another company and be a separate download or
installer CD.

I was hoping, by mentioning that there were internal and external types,
you'd remember where you used to connect the telephone line, in order
to use the dialup modem.

Paul

 

[Bob I]

You never provided the fine people trying to help you with the name and
model of the modem. All you said was "bell modem", that could be almost
anything.

 

[sgopus]

So with that said, you won't be able to detect a MODEM per se.
However having a NIC (Network interface card) means you may be looking in
the wrong direction. stop looking for the modem and look instead for your LAN
connection, I assume you have a constant on connection to the internet???
try this, open your control panel and look for the network connections icon,
let us know if you only have internet connection listed, this means you may
have to manually configure your internet connection.
You can try opening IE internet explorer and open tools, internet options,
and connections tab, choose the LAN settings and ensure the automatically
detect settings, let us know if this works.