Motorola Sm56 Problem

[KMIELKE123]

This morning I was surfing the internet when for no apparent reason my connection failed. This of course is not exactly unusual. However I have not been able to get online again since. My system specs are 1.2 Ghz ATHLON, WIN 98 SE, Microstar M/Board, PCI 128 Soundblaster, NVidia GeForce 2 Graphics Card.

I have looked into any likely reasons for this and had help from ISP (AOL).

Running some diagnostic tests I have gone into Control Panel > Modem > Diagnostic > More Info. The box here which should contain certain info pertaining to my modem is blank.

In Win Setup > Communications I have been told that only two
things need to be selected - Dial Up Networking and Hyperterminal. I have gone into this 4 times and each time found that Hyperterminal is not selected. I select it, exit, but going back in it has once again been unselected.

If I go to Start > Accessories > Comms > Phone Dialer. The Dialer does not work. But if I go to AOL and sign on I can hear the modem dialling.

If I type Run > Hypertrm it says cannot be found - check path is correct.

I assume that this is the reason for failure to reconnect.

Can anyone advise me what is causing this, and how to rectify this.

Many Thanks In Advance.

Sorry for such a long post I just wanted to include as much info as possible on my problem and what I had tried doing to resolve it.

[VirtualNurse]

My guess is you caught a virus or worm or trojan or whatever...
I think you should reinstall W98 and all the stuff, it will work just fine after...
Let's hope it's not the kind of virus that harms the flash memory!

[spaceman_333]

If the modem is listed in Device Manager, remove it. Shut down and reinstall it. Your main problem could be your ISP.

spaceman

[KMIELKE123]

I thank everyone for reading and taking the trouble to reply. I did indeed format the hard drive and do a fresh install of Win, AOL, etc. Everything seems to be working now - until the next time :-)

Thanks Again,


KM.

[tiberiuscan]

Hi KMIELKE123 and welcome to the forum.
I usually advise against reformatting over smaller issues. And your problem may not have been a virus but with AOL (Let's not open that can of worms again)
Spaceman_333 had the right idea. Try removing and re-installing your modem's software first.
There is a very simple test that can be done to be sure your modem is working and you don't have to be connected to test it.
In control panel double click on the Modem Icon. Make sure your modem is selected and hit the button that says diagnostics.
Highlight the com port your modem is attached to and chose More Info. The box at the bottom of the screen will give you all kinds of AT information. This is good. That would prove that your modem (at least physically) does not have a problem.