Switching From cable to dialup, Modem not detected

Trying to help a friend. Running W98se. She got off cable, and reverted back to dialup. PcTel modem. Win won't/can't detect the modem on reboot. Went into device manager. Removed all modems listed(3). Rebooted. No new hardware detected. Tried to "install new hardware ".(she has a disk). Install appeared to work properly. Went into control panel, modems, and the modem is listed now. But went into "diagnose ", and got error, unable to communicate with modem. Tried putting it on both comm ports 1&2. No luck. Should something have been done, ie, removing any evidence of cable? Disable something, etc? Or is this a hardware issue? Any help appreciated.

 

If "ptsnoop" is not running in the background then the driver is disabled in msconfig or not installed.

 

As with all winmodems, you cannot force an install to whatever available port.
The reason it's failing the diagnostic, is because you've forced it onto com 1 or 2, and those are system com ports.
The modem will set up it's own virtual com port, usually com 5 or 11, or any other unused com port in the system.
If this is all confusing, then you need do do a few things to get it working.
1. Boot to safe mode, remove all modems, com ports, and "other devices" from device mangler.
2. Shutdown and remove the modem from the computer. Physically take it out.
3. Restart the computer, and let the com ports install. Restart as needed.
4. Shutdown, put the modem back in.
5. Restart, and Windows should detect new hardware.
6. Let it install, and if prompted for missing files, browse to it's installation diskette/cd.
7. Restart, even if you're NOT prompted to do so.
8. If it's NOT detected, run the setup from the disk. This usually gives it a kick in the pants, and will install.
9. Restart, even if you're NOT prompted...
10. Post back and let us know how it turned out.
11. If you simply get too frustrated, throw out the modem (it's a $5 POS winmodem anyhow) and purchase any "hard" modem from a reputable dealer.

 

Well, got the puter to recognize modem via Reboot's suggestions.
Suspect a virus now. Can do dialup and get connected. If I open IE, get explorer errors.no details, and sys 32 errors. If I open IE without being connected no errors.. If further issues, will start a new thread. Thanks for the help.

 

Yes, its not an "iexplorer" error, its "explorer" error.