[Ham-Computers] RE: Help with modem

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

Brian,

Whenever you install a Windows OS, it's extremely important to install the
motherboard "chipset" drivers *before* anything else.  Proper chipset
support is absolutely critical to ensure that all other devices on the
motherboard (including all the expansion slots - be they ISA, PCI, AGP,
EISA, MCA, etc) are properly enabled.  The "base level" chipset support
drivers normally come on a CD that ships with the motherboard.  You can also
download the latest drivers from the motherboard vendor or from the chipset
manufacturer (such as Intel or VIA or SIS).  I've posted about chipset
drivers in the past...search the archives for "chipset" and you should be
able to find them.

Assuming you have the proper chipset drivers installed, the next step is to
install the proper drivers for your modem.  You didn't mention if you have
an internal modem or an external modem.

For an external modem, just install the proper modem drivers.  Win9x usually
detect any serial-port connected (and powered-on) external modem and will
attempt to find the appropriate drivers.  If it doesn't find a driver for
your specific modem, then it will usually install the "Standard xxxxx bps
modem" driver.  This works fine, but won't take advantate of any special
features the modem might offer (including compression and/or error
correction).

For internal modems, it can get a bit tricky.  There are two general types
of internal modems - "hardware" modems and "software" modems.  Software
modems are also known as "DSP", "Winmodems", or "Softmodems".

Internal "hardware" modems are fairly easy to configure.  They are "true"
modems with all the same components as a traditional external modem, but
also include a serial port and is built onto an expansion card (such as ISA
or PCI).  Windows will detect internal hardware modems just like external
modems.

Internal "software" modems aren't really modems at all - they are really
digital signal processors (DSP's) that emulate a modem.  In fact, DSP's can
emulate just about anything that can be mathematically modeled.  A MODEM is
a really just simple analog-to-digital converter (and vice versa) and is
easily emulated by a DSP.  The theoretical advantage of DSP emulation is
that if a modem standard changed (as they did quite often before DSL and
Cable came around), then the only change needed to the DSP was to re-write
the emulation code.  So a "softmodem" was just a DSP on an ISA or PCI card
without any intelligence.  The modem emulation was actually done by the PC's
CPU and it "drove" the DSP telling it what to do and how to "emulate" a real
modem.  As you can see, without the proper software code (aka "driver") for
a softmodem, the modem doesn't work at all.  Another advantage was
cost...softmodems generally only have a couple of chips on the entire modem
board.

The first PC-based DSP "data pumps" I remember was IBM's "M-Wave"
architecture.  It came out in the early 1990's on the first ThinkPad
laptops.  The ThinkPad had one M-Wave DSP chip and it was used for both
soundcard emulation and modem emulation.  Boy did we have some major
headaches with that!  It was a novel idea, but way ahead of it's time.  The
CPU wasn't fast enough to keep up and the code/drivers required at least 1MB
of RAM (nothing by today's standards, but back then 1MB RAM was a LOT!).
IBM eventually dropped the M-Wave architecture, but dedicated softmodems
starting showing up a few years later.  Texas Instruments and Rockwell both
had leading market share with softmodems - US Robotics used TI DSP's and
every just about every generic softmodem on the market used the Rockwell
softmodem chipset.  Eventually, different "flavors" of softmodems came
out...HCF, HSF, HSP, etc.  Basically all different versions of DSP and
support software.  Unfortunately, many generic softmodem manufacturers went
out of business and drivers for these cards were hard to find.  Yes, they
were mostly based on the Rockwell (now known as Conexant) chipset(s), but
each manufacturer implemented the DSP slightly differently so "reference"
drivers wouldn't work.  There are now several websites dedicated to
collecting softmodem drivers from all different sources (and even patching
newer drivers to work with older modems).

In your case, Brian, you need to find out what type of modem it is.
Usually, on the modem itself is a sticker...all modems sold in the U.S.
needs "type approval" for use on phone lines.  There should be an FCC number
on the modem.  Once you find that, you should be able to track down the
manufacturer and model of modem.  If you're lucky, the brand and model might
even be printed on the modem somewhere.  Once you have that info, look for
the appropriate drivers on the 'net.  If it's a "hardware" modem, then you
can even try one of the "standard" modem drivers included with Windows.  If
it's a "softmodem", then you'll need to be a bit more vigilant and search
for the appropriate drivers.

Good luck!

  - Aaron, NN6O


-----Original Message-----
From: Brian K. Gaskamp [mailto:bkgaskamp at juno.com]
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 7:26 PM
To: ham-computers at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Help with modem 


Something has me stumped.
I did a re-install of Win 98 Millinium on my computer and everything works
great now, EXCEPT the computer tells me no modem is installed when the modem
is there.

Any ideas on how I can get the modem working again.

Its a gateway computer but I have no idea what type of modem there is in
there, its probably a generic of some type.

Any ideas or suggestions.

Thanks,
Brian