New Computer Question Thread

“As sound advice suggested for my previous problem, new hard drive installed, second time in this Dell.


The problem is with the modem. The software doesn't find the modem. I have 'un-installed' the modem both physically and the accompanying software, including the control panel program.

I even tried putting in a new modem, still no response.

Would appreciate any help on getting this thing back up and working.



BTW using the wife's portable to visit TT. It's a pain.”

“It's possible that the new hard drive is using resources the modem (actually the COM port the modem is using) needs, and it's possible that in the process of installing the new drive the COM post has been reassigned or disabled.

This new drive, did it require a new OS build?”

“New drive and I had to install the OS (Windows 98)--yeah I know I'm way behind, but with no job gotta do this cheap.

Thanks for your help.”

“I like Win98 and use it on all the client machines I have at home. Well, Win98 Second Edition, since the original was so unstable that Bill killed it after only a few months. It is the last 32 bit Windows operating system that doesn't include "ET phone home code" to send your personal information to Microsoft and who knows where all else, and that's worth a lot.

So back to the problem. Click on Start>Settings>Control Panel>System> then the Device Manager tab and finally click the little plus symbol beside "Ports".

Underneath "Ports" you should see at least one printer port (LPT1) and one or two serial (COM1, COM2) ports. From the modem software, you should know which COM port the modem thinks it is supposed to use, and make sure that that one is in the list under "Ports" in Device Manager.

If it isn't, then you may have accidentally disabled it in the BIOS. If it is there, click on it to highlight it and then click on the "Properties" button at the bottom of the window.

Check to see that it is working properly and record any error messages if it isn't. If it says it is working properly, click on the "Resources" tab and record what I/O address and IRQ it is using.

Then things get ugly, and I have most often seen this problem just after an OS build, so be prepared.

Many times Windows will assign different devices to the same IRQ, which is sort of like putting two girls on the same phone number. As long as one or the other is out on a date, everything works fine. Both home together, both head for that phone and all of a sudden you have a conflict.

Windows doesn't deal with intermittant conflicts of this type easily, and it frequently reassigns semi-conflicting resources during a rebuild.

You have to look at every device in the box, see what IRQ and addresses they are using to find the device that is fighting with the COM port, and manually re-assign one or the other so they no longer fight.

Just re-installing the drivers for say the modem or even the COM port won't get it, because Windows keeps track of "successful" combinations, and since it never saw the conflict that is causing you problems now, it will simply put the COM port or modem right back where it is now after deleting it and reinstalling it.

Manual re-assignment is the only way I've been able to fix this if it gets to this stage, but there is one other possibility.

Because of these types of problems I always build a Windows box with ALL hardware in place before laying down the OS, so a full re-install of Win98 may do the trick. Then again, it may just repeat what you have now, including the conflict and you'll still have to manually fix it.

Get in there and see what you find and come back here if you find something strange or want more info on manually reassigning resources.

Good luck.

:-)”

“two girls on one phone.... I like that-great graphic,hehe

on the problem side there is one other possible. During the win95/98 era there was a nasty bug in some (ethernet) cards where once it was installed it became locked into the computer, it worked fine untill you tried to move it to a different system or reinstalled the os. Either action resulted in a non working card and the only fix for it was to just simply replace it. I hope this isnt the case here.

If its an old modem that is not plug and play or needs a fixed irq/dma setting check in bios and see if you can reserve them - some systems of that era allowed that as a way to resolve the conflicts. Also changing the PnP aware setting can help too.

Btw you do know win 98 is officially obsolete now? If ya want to get away from it try some redhat 9 - its 40.00 at most places and only has a few issues to deal with....”

“Dirty Old Man,

I have a DX4-120 (1GB, 24 MB)that used to run an old version of Slackware, then became my son's computer, and then was retired when I got him a P3-667.

I still have Slack, and Redhat 6.2, and am wanting to bring up a Linux box to master/slave with some Sun boxes (7, 8 and 9) to play around with NIS and NIS+ integration issues with NDS and AD.

Which OS (Slack, RH6.2, RH9) best fits the objective and available hardware? Is 6.2 a good RH build? Any major flaws besides security issues? The test network is isolated from the internet, so I don't have to worry about hackers but I don't want to waste time on building a buggy server.”

“I havent tried the older versions of redhat but I can tell you the 9.0 is miles ahead on desktop issues. You probably want the pro version if your playing network server. - you can of course download the extra components off the web as well after a minimum install of the base os. as far as security I do know both redhat 8 and mandrake are pretty hard to crack for normal hacking straight out of the box. With some tweaking and firewalling they both become near impossible. The jury is still out on version 9.

Hardware - Im running a k6/2 - 500 and havent run into any major issues yet. Older hardware generally tends to have better support as it takes time to get the software written. Network stuff does get faster response then the goody hardware since servers are the backbone of linux. Usb support is much better then any previous version.

I havent seen any of the network admin tools yet so I cant really comment on them but If your 3 versions behind then your in for a pleasant shock - linux has been getting a lot of major development and research recently and I have seen vast improvements in every area I have touched.

rots of ruck, hehehe”

“Good deal on the interface upgrades. If ever we are to be free of Bill's megalomania, Linux is the ticket for the average user.

For this project the interface isn't as critical as is a different flavor of Unix. Want to see if some of the directory services integration software adheres to strict NIS and NIS+ standards, as well how the different ports of unix handle the same.

Thanks for the info.”

“He is machinehead!!! What does he know? Don't you want the blondie who could tear up an anvil to work on the computer for ya? Hand me that # 6 butter knife? All's ya gotta do is hook up the positive negalator to the negative postilator!”

“You better quit playing around with things you don't understand, Blondie.

'Lessen you want a new hairdo.

;-)”

“Why you wanna act like that?
Tell you what. You sit on my lap.... and let me fix your hair. and then we'll switch? You get the better end of the deal. I have more hair! LOL
eww..... for you to mess up.

bad.
second thought. I'll put the butter knife away now.
quickly. and make nice.”

“Jeffers - linux usually complies with the standards completely. Microsoft loves to "extend" the standard with their own stuff that cant be used by non-MS products....”

“My pops as a old '486' with old disk drives (3.5, 5) i.e. no CDrom drive. It has no web connection. The software had to be ordered since it was not downloadable anywhere because of his old O.S.

What would be the best way to install the software? The cd has about 560mb of info on it.

Would a external cd driver work with this older cpu? The OS is 3.11.

I've looked into copying the CD onto 3.5 but it looks like it would take tons of those 3.5 to copy the whole thing. Even still when I try to copy just a few files off the CD, those that look necessary like DOS, English, and the important Extra files its still gonna take lots of 3.5 disks.

I guess they don't make 3.5's that hold more than 1.44 mb's and I don't really want to ZIP because would mean I would need a unzip on that older cpu. Kinda more work isn't?

Do you think it would be possible to hook a external CD player to an old cpu just to download this info?

How would you put those 560mb's onto an older cpu that had no CD rom?”

“Briar-

With a system that old, it is very unlikely that an external drive will work unless there is a SCSI adapter. Your other option is to load an ethernet card and network the computer. It's all a lot of work with Windows 3.11.

You might be able to find an old driver for the CD reader, but it would have to be for Windows 3.11. That particular OS has been unsupported for years, since the mid 90's.

My advice, if at all possible, get your pops to spring for a new computer. You can get a ahlfway decent system for a few hundred bucks these days. I know that's not always possible.”

“Cruise yard sales on the weekend for a few weeks. You'll probably find someone willing to sell an old P133 with a CDROM or maybe even a newer box for $50 or less. Of course, eventually you'll run into the same sort of problem, but I'm thinking if your dad goes from a 486 running Windows 3.11 to a P4 running XP, he'll suffer too much change shock. He might think that a box running Windows 95 would be a nice upgrade though.”

“An external CD drive would probably need a USB interface. Does pop's artifact have one?

I don't know if it will support it, but Best Buy has a Norcent 52x24x52 Internal CD-RW Drive for only $20 after rebates.


Be a really good son and get him something like this.”

“Somewhere between bit's yard sale suggestion and a new machine, you can find certified refurbs in the $200's.”

“FWIW, I have an old 486DX33 running Windows 3.11 that has a CDROM drive in it. It can be done.”

“Thanks fellas,

Irony is, he has a 6 month old cpu on the other side of the room thats ready to print. Its got XP Home on it and all new versions of Quickens and other letter writing stuff. Really too confusing for him at this stage in the game.

He uses this older 486 w/3.11 for checks, letters and stuff. He has grown acustom to the older Quickens and First Choice version. Simplicity.

Would the new cpu run the older Quickens and First Choice stuff? COuld I just make backup copies of exsisting files/programs and transfer them to the newer cpu?”

“I had an old copy of Quicken on my old P133. It wouldn't run on my new computer, so I went to Micro$oft Money...”