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Internal:
Most Fax/Modems in PCs are of the Internal type and on sale today are still:
PCI 56,000 Fax Modems - Usually Plug 'n' Play (but some can be manual or be set to PnP.)
External and USB
But .External Standard or External USB ** modems are available.
Universal Serial Bus. If you are installing an external USB modem there should be no problems with conflicts
..
Detailed under are some of the things you can do or might have to do to get over Modem -Motherboard - Windows communication problems.
However before reading all the info below and have a fit because of the complexity, providing it's not a conflict problem (see below), then the modem card may be slightly out of it's slot, or it has the wrong software driver installed (See below).
Be assured that most new 56K PCI Modems will be
detected automatically by Windows the first time it loads after installing the
Modem, at which time it will detect e.g: "Found PCI communication
device", you will then be requested to insert a CDRom to find and install
the driver
and 9 times out of ten, it's as easy as that.
PCI and External Standard Fax/Modem problems, are nearly always 'conflict' problems caused by having the modem on the same com port as another device which was present before you installed the modem.
Most conflict problems can be solved by placing the modem on to Com 3 or Com 4.
Here are the four Com Port Settings:
|
|
Com Port |
Interrupt |
IO Address |
|
|
1 |
4 |
03F8 |
|
|
2 |
3 |
02F8 |
|
|
3 |
4 |
03E8 |
|
|
4 |
3 |
02E8 |
Notice that Coms 1 & 3, and Coms 2&4 have the same Interrupt, but all ports have a distinct IO Address.
For Most older PCs Com 1, Interrupt 4, 03F8 is used by a standard mouse (Modern PCs have a PS2 mouse which does not use this port but may use say Interrupt 12).
Com 2, Interrupt 5 is often used by Network Cards and this could be a cause of a conflict, especially when many sound cards use Int 5.
If the modem does not work on the manufacturers settings and this is set to Com 2, then for older Modems re-assign the Port to Com3 or Com4 by using the dip switches at the end of the card or jumpers on the card. But before doing this read about the biggest cause of conflict below: Some Modems require a port to be disabled in the BIOS, say Com2.
Biggest Cause of
Trouble:
As mentioned above, If the problem of conflicts is not the fault, then the modem card may be slightly out of it's slot, or it has the wrong software driver installed, or it is malfunctioning and needs to be replaced.
Most 56K PCI Modems will be detected automatically by Windows the first time it loads after installing the Modem, at which time it will detect e.g: "Found PCI communication device", you will then be requested to insert a CDRom to find and install the driver.
If you are installing an external USB modem there should be no problems with conflicts as USB resources are managed by the Motherboard and don't use the normal resources. Again Windows should detect and ask for the software drivers.
Many older modems require that the port they will occupy needs to be detected BEFORE detecting the Modem itself. Whilst this is normally done automatically, existing conflicting devices could prevent it.
In Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager, the available ports are shown. If Com1 and Com2 are the only ones showing, then use Control Panel, Add New Hardware, and allow the wizard to detect any new device - (here we are hoping it will find a new com port).
If the detection wizard shows a details button after detection, then clicking this will most likely show that a communications port has been found (the one to be used by the faxModem). If this is the case then click the finish button, then use: Control Panel, Modems and let modem detection take place.
When the modem has been queried and found, it may set to a Standard Modem - or after placing the modem driver diskette into the A Drive and click the Have Disk button you can install the exact driver.
Once installed use: Control Panel, Modems, Diagnostics, More Info button and if all is well you will see AT Commands and Responses appear - You now have a fully detected working modem.
.
Network cards usually take a high Interrupt No. E.g: 9 or 10 etc..
But if they are configured on to Interrupt 5 they can conflict with sounds cards which normally use this interrupt.
Generally speaking conflicts are not the major problem with Network Cards but driver software can be. In most cases there may be many types of network card in different PCs on a network, and the problem occurs if a card needs to be reconfigure and is done so with the wrong driver diskette.
In case of conflict or incorrect driver usage, use Control Panel, System. Device Manager, open the Network Adapter section, single click the network card name, then click Properties button.
You can change the driver by clicking the 'Update Driver' button on the driver tab.
You can change the Interrupt or IO Address by taking the click off 'Use automatic settings', then single click either the interrupt or address and then click the 'Change Setting' button.
Most flatbed scanners use a SCSI card and therefore do not suffer from conflicts.
Trouble can be caused if the software is set to ISIS when the device should be set with a TWAIN driver.
Some hand scanners can be manually set with an IO setting and changing this setting can resolve conflicts.
Most flatbed scanners have a locking mechanism, always ensure the scanner is locked before moving it, and unlocked before using it.
On OCR flatbed scanners before using OCR, ensure that scanner is switched on before attempting to scan and that the setting is on Line Art and not colour.
If you are using an older copy of Textbridge Classic with Office 97 and the Textbridge option does not appear on the Word97 File Menu, then you need to upgrade Textbridge Classic. Tbclassicupdt.exe (1.35MB) can be obtained from http://www.xerox.com and this will update Textbridge so that you can OCR scan directly from Word97.
You may have an old 16bit Twain Driver and need a 32 bit version. In this case contact the scanner manufacturer's site and download a new software version that supports Twain32. E.g: a Black Widow scanner, contact http://www.blackwidow.co.uk/scanners/index.htm
