Hi, I have a rather weird modem problem here that I'm having difficulty
trouble-shooting and I was wondering if anyone out there has seen
something like this and/or might offer suggestions. Can't seem to find
anything useful at deja.com.
For several years I've had two older modems in my desktop PC: 28.8
and 14.4 US Robotics Sportsters. They have worked well together all
that time. I no longer use them for internet connection except in
emergencies. Instead, I use them for incoming/outgoing fax (efax) and
also for a "phone dialer" perl+tk script I concocted for calling people
and my voice mail at work.
Anyway, when I returned from a trip on Monday *both* modems were behaving
strangely. The 14.4 would not respond to AT commands and the 28.8 would
drop the line (onhook click) during or shortly after the ATDTnnnnn
dial sequence.
I'm beginning to think it is a hardware problem possibly with dropped
interrupts.
I took the cover off of the PC. Things inside did not seem overly hot,
but after about 20 minutes the 28.8 modem started working almost perfectly
again. Also, if I switched out of X to the linux console, the 14.4 modem
would at least respond to AT commands now (but would still drop the line
during the ATDTnnnnn sequence). Less CPU overhead perhaps allowing more
interrupts thru??? I put the cover back on loosely, and in 15 min the
28.8 started failing again.
Strange!
I see no mention from the kernel of any problems (e.g. interrupt problems)
in /var/log/messages. I have tested with 3 different comm programs and
get the same result. With a laptop+modem I verified the phone line was
OK wrt the modem applications that fail on the desktop. Rebooting/power-cycling
the machine doesn't help, nor does booting an earlier kernel (2.2.6 vs 2.2.14).
The machine (2 ppro cpu's tyan s1668 m/b, btw) had some heat problems
last summer as the power supply fan was dying. I replaced the fan at
that time and the machine has been fine since. Even when the machine
was having heat problems last summer the modems never showed any failures
(scsi cdrom and tape drive were the trouble makers back then).
Any ideas?
Karl Runge
**********************************************************
To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the
*body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter:
unsubscribe gnhlug
**********************************************************
