Windows Fax stopped working

[Dave Mosbruger]

I have used the Windows Fax service in the past with no problem, but tried to
send one yesterday and it failed. Specifically, the fax never made it into
the fax console "outbox" and the modem (near as I can tell) didn't try to
dial the number. The send wizard sees my modem and the job appears in the fax
print queue, but processing stops at that point. I checked the services
status and all the "dependent" services are started. I tried manually
starting the fax service. It started, but almost immediately stopped. The
window telling me it stopped says some services do that if they have no
action to perform, but that doesn't appear to apply here (i.e., a job was in
the fax print queue). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Fax Windows
component, but the same problem occurred.

The "sent" folder in the fax console says I last sent a fax over a year ago,
so I can't identify a specific change that might have caused this.

Windows XP Home Edition version 2002 SP3 is installed as my operating system
and I use AVG, AdAware, and Spybot for virus and spyware control. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dave Mosbruger

 

[Greg]

I have used the Windows Fax service in the past with no problem, but tried to
send one yesterday and it failed. Specifically, the fax never made it into
the fax console "outbox" and the modem (near as I can tell) didn't try to
dial the number. The send wizard sees my modem and the job appears in the fax
print queue, but processing stops at that point. I checked the services
status and all the "dependent" services are started. I tried manually
starting the fax service. It started, but almost immediately stopped. The
window telling me it stopped says some services do that if they have no
action to perform, but that doesn't appear to apply here (i.e., a job was in
the fax print queue). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Fax Windows
component, but the same problem occurred.

The "sent" folder in the fax console says I last sent a fax over a year ago,
so I can't identify a specific change that might have caused this.

Windows XP Home Edition version 2002 SP3 is installed as my operating system
and I use AVG, AdAware, and Spybot for virus and spyware control. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dave Mosbruger

Dave,

It sounds like we might be experiencing the same issue. I have posted the
below.

"I have used the Microsoft Fax Services feature with Windows XP Professional
for about two years with out a glitch, until now. I will fax about 350 faxes
a day using this feature and yesterday it quit working. When I send a fax I
do not here the usual dial tone and dialing. I am able to manually fax from
the connected all in fax/printer HP 5600. I am also able to successfully
test the modem using the device manager and fax console. Can anyone solve
this issue?"

Any luck correcting the issue?

r/
Greg

 

[N6RDY]

I have used the Windows Fax service in the past with no problem, but tried to
send one yesterday and it failed. Specifically, the fax never made it into
the fax console "outbox" and the modem (near as I can tell) didn't try to
dial the number. The send wizard sees my modem and the job appears in the fax
print queue, but processing stops at that point. I checked the services
status and all the "dependent" services are started. I tried manually
starting the fax service. It started, but almost immediately stopped. The
window telling me it stopped says some services do that if they have no
action to perform, but that doesn't appear to apply here (i.e., a job was in
the fax print queue). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Fax Windows
component, but the same problem occurred.

The "sent" folder in the fax console says I last sent a fax over a year ago,
so I can't identify a specific change that might have caused this.

Windows XP Home Edition version 2002 SP3 is installed as my operating system
and I use AVG, AdAware, and Spybot for virus and spyware control. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dave Mosbruger

 

[Dave Mosbruger]

Greg,

No, as yet no one has suggested any solution to this. Sorry (for both of us).

Dave

 

[N6RDY]

is "take it to the local stationery store" and pay the fee!

Verne Peterson

 

[Greg]

Dave,

Open the fax console and select the tab that will let you configure the
faxes. What you need to do is enable incoming faxes and outgoing faxes.
Once this is done have someone send you a fax. You will or will not here the
ring through the computer audio (make sure volume is on…no ring bad modem).
The fax monitor should be displayed so you can see what is going on. During
this process you should see a fax or partial fax come in or an error message.
If you get an error chances are the modem is bad. I tested this last night
and determined the modem is bad (I saw a partial fax with an error message).
I will have a new modem by Friday to retest.

r/
Greg

 

[Dave Mosbruger]

Verne,

I don't know if this will help you, but I think I finally figured my problem
out. I live in the greater Philadelphia area and new area codes were created
within the local calling area to meet the demand for phone numbers. When this
happened I added a couple dialing rules to say the modem didn't need to dial
a "1" to access those specific area codes. I thought these would be
exceptions to the generic use of "1 plus area code" for calls outside my
specific area code, but instead it seems the modem now needs a rule for each
area code I want to dial. In this case, I had been trying to fax to an 800
area code. I just added a dialing rule for 800 to use "1 plus area code" and
the modem dialed the number.

I can't imagine the dialing rules are really set up to force us to enter a
rule for every area code we may dial, so I probably have some other
configuration setting that is driving this, but for the moment at least I
seem to be back to the point where I could send a fax if I needed to.

Good luck!


Dave

 

[Dave Mosbruger]

Verne,

I think I found the underlying problem. When I created the first set of
dialing rules I included one for my own area code. I just deleted it and all
the rules except for the other area codes in my "local" calling area and the
fax printer seems to be working as it used to. Including a rule for my own
area code seems to have caused the problem.

Dave