Dontchahateitwhen...

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...the symptoms displayed by a failed piece of hardware lead everywhere BUT to the failed piece of hardware?

Had a Compaq with a modem that wouldn't dial out: device in use.

Query modem: says COM port not configured properly.

Okay. Let's check the COM port.

Hm. Code 10. Windows can't use.

Windows can't set resources. Aha! Set resources manually and reboot.

COM port still shows Code 10 in Device Manager. Uninstall and reboot.

COM port reinstalls. Shows Code 10. @#$%ing hell.

Download updated chipset drivers from Compaq. Install. Reboot.

Code 10. @#$%.

Download BIOS update. Install. Reboot.

Code 10 AGAIN. Mother@#$%ing puss bucket!

Apply Service Pack 3. Reboot.

Code 10.

Go through every single @#$%ing BIOS option. No manual settings available for COM ports.

Move modem to a different PCI slot. Reboot.

Code 10.

MOTHER. PUSS. BUCKET.

Pop out modem. Throw in new modem. Start up system.

Dials out immediately - COM port issue gone.

Take old modem out onto front sidewalk. Apply large hammer liberally. Sweep components into baggie for return to customer as I always give back the old parts, even if they're in parts themselves.

Final score: $59.95 for labour, $19.95 for replacement modem, and two Tylenol for the headache the @#$%ing thing gave me.

That is all. Carry on.

 

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lol, you gotta love computers

 

What is this "modem" thing of which you speak?

Tell them that 1990 called... they want their hardware back.

 

i thought com ports and modems had long since met the toasters in silicon heaven

Grim

 

City slicker.

Remember that I live in a RURAL area where the choices are:

a) Affordable and completely unusable dial-up.
b) Unaffordable and mostly unusable Ka-band satellite "hi"-(snicker)-speed.

Netago's WiMax wireless is supposed to come online in the area by this fall (towers are up, most of the radios are mounted, just waiting for power to be run to them). Until then it's dial-up city for some people.

So I get to diagnose modem issues a couple of times per month. Woo-hoo.

 

Are you kidding. I know bussiness here that still use dial up. Not to mention alot of home owners. There are more people here that are still on dial up then there are dhl. Yeah I know just boggles the mind!

 

I know how you feel when you try all these steps and nothing works except for the most simple thing... trying another modem... only to figure out that it was a the modem and not the pc. All I can say is I've been there more then once and well it is annoying big time.

 

It's just that 99 times out of 100 when you get Code 10 on a COM port under Device Manager...

...it's the COM port.

Doh.

 

Well i was less than pleased to read today that Idaho ranks in the bottom 3 states for average broadband speed, no FiOS for me unless I move to portland ;)


It still shocks me that places in the US and Canada have problems getting better than dial up when parts of rural Africa have wireless mesh internet at better than UK speeds!

 

Phoenix, broadband is spreading pretty rapidly through the prairie parts of Western Canada. The problem is that the region where I live -- The Neutral Hills -- lives up to its name. Rural wireless depends on line-of-sight and that's a bit of a bastard here. Especially since we're using licensed spectrum in the 3.5 Ghz band which won't penetrate a leafed-out tree. Takes a lot of extra engineering and planning to make sure that each tower reaches the most people. Keep in mind that the average tower will never see more than 20 - 30 users because of the sparseness of the population in this area.

The local government had to step in to subsidize the project because no private company wanted to spend the money on towers with that few subscribers per tower. Without the high-speed all of the kids and young families have been fleeing the area so getting this service going has become a priority now, but it's still taking time to roll out.

I was actually an installer for it for a while before my heart took a turn for the worse. The arrhythmia hit while I was three stories up a customer's TV antenna tower and I regained consciousness swinging from my safety lanyard (best $300 I've ever spent). That's when I said "@#$% it" and opened the store in Oyen. Now the customers come to me and I sit in a chair in the back of the shop. No more climbing towers for me.

 

About 2 years ago, I worked on someone's computer who had satellite "broadband". To my surprise, it wasn't satellite down/modem up, like how it used to be; it was two-way satellite. But man... it was painfully slow, even for text-based Web sites.

The cable company decided to end their cable run on the street parallel to theirs. The residents on the street told the cable company that they'd personally bear the cost of extending the line... but they were met with deaf ears. They can SEE the cable line from their houses! So close... and yet so far.

As far as modem tech support is concerned... stuff like that makes you glad to be "old school" so you CAN diagnose and fix it.

 

Yeah, but y'all just got the Lectricity out in you'uns town.