How can I reinstall older (stable) modem driver

Looking at the Properties for ESS, it shows an Interrupt Request 05.... is that the IRQ number? I seem to remember that there is a correspondence between IRQ# and COM port#....

Yes that is the IRQ#.

Do you have any listing at all for the Modem ? If you do not show a COM3 or no listing for the Modem then the Modem is not ( I believe anyway ) installed correctly.

If you do show a listing for the Modem, check to see what IRQ it is using ( or trying to ).

BUT DO NOT blame yourself for this. Internal Modems once installed can become ( or are allready ) what we call Hard Coded and REFUSE to change.

Yes to COM Ports and IRQs. COM1-IRQ4. COM 2 - IRQ3.

The Audio is NORMALLY 5 or 7. And if ( even not showing it ) the Modem attempts to use one of them it will create an UNSEEN and tough to find conflict.

In order to fix this. Many times it does require removing the modem, restarting Windows without it and then shutting down and putting the Modem back in a diiferent slot, Or another modem entirely.

But please note here that I am doing a lot of this from memory ( which does fail me on occasion ) as it has been A LOOONNNGGG time since I dealt with a PCI Internal Modem.

BillyBob

 

Not that I know of

BB

 

BB - there is a modem listed on both the Control Panel and the Device Manager; however, when I look at the properties there is no way to see what Interupt it's using. All it shows is that it's using COM3. Believe me, I'm going to look at external modems in the next couple of days! Thanks for your continued help.. much appreciated.

NOW to get off this box!

 

Go to Device Manager and highlight Computer, then press Properties at the bottom of the page. This will bring up a page that lists IRQ as an option (it's probably already selected.) On that page you can see which interrupt setting your modem uses, as well as your audio, I imagine. There's nothing wrong with their sharing an interrupt (IRQ)--necessarily--but, in your case, maybe there is. In any event, if you see that they're not sharing the IRQ you will have eliminated that possibility....I believe that COM3 is usually IRQ 5, but check and see.

 

there is a modem listed on both the Control Panel and the Device Manager; however, when I look at the properties there is no way to see what Interupt it's using.

The answer that I expected.

Believe me, I'm going to look at external modems in the next couple of days! Thanks for your continued help.. much appreciated.

If you do get an External just make sure that the Internal is completly removed. Both in Device Manager AND physically. Otherwise it will continue to create problems.

You are welcome.

BillyBob

 

pstanhope... Well, I may have made some progress..

I followed your navigation to find what was using IRQ5 and there are three things: ESS WDM MODEM ENUMERATOR; ESS Maestro PCI Audio (WDM); and IRQ Holder for PCI Steering.

BTW, the manuf. of the modem is ESS. Don't know what the acronyms WDM or PCI represent.. Anyway, further examination showed that there was an 'unknown device' found and it turned out to be the Wave device, for which it could not find a driver... what is 'Wave' anyway?? I disabled this device from all hardware profiles (I only have one), and lo and behold my dialup line was able to be used again w/o rebooting...!!

Does any of this make sense?

Thanks to you and BillyBob, I MAY be back on the air and stable, albeit w/o a Wave Device... what is that anyway?

 

Suddenly dawned on me (Duuhhhh !) that a wave device is to play .wav files.... tried to play one and it didn't work. So, went to Add Hw, Windows found the Wave Device, w/o driver, so I directed it to use the driver on the W98 recovery CD, it did, loaded the driver(s), and now I appear to be stable WITH my Wavec Device (can now play .wav files...) only time will tell how stable this is..

At least I've found out that I can disable the wave device in my hardware profile and redial w/o system reboot, so the day hasn't been a TOTAL waste of time.. THNX to all...

 

Good work. There is the conflict. Audio and Modem both assigned to IRQ5

At least I've found out that I can disable the wave device in my hardware profile and redial w/o system reboot,

So is that saying that the problem does still exist with the wave device enabled ? I am guessing Yes.

When you disable the wave device it frees IRQ 5 for use by the modem.

So if the problem ( with dialing ) does go away with the wave device disabled and you can redial with out rebooting then it is deffintely a conflict between the audio device and the modem.

And may/will not go away unless the modem is changed out. Even a new Internal in a different slot might fo it.

But I believe over all you would be better satisfied with an External. They are a much better device overall.

 

PCI refers to the slot on your motherboard to which you have attached your modem. The outdated, longer slots (which your mother board may not have at all) were called ISA. The primary difference, as far as I know, and I don't know much, is that Windows will detect the PCI devices automatically whereas one has to install the old ISA devices manually....Some modems, including yours, I think, come with the capability of voice communication; thus the Voice Modem Wave Device listing. Happily, you have found a way to keep it from popping up again and again, so you can now safely ignore it. ...In the future, if you should get a message from your Internet Service Provider, i.e. AOl, Earthlink, etc, saying that it can't open because it can't find the port or some such thing, just go to Control Panel/Modems and see to which port the modem is assigned because Windows will, for reasons of its own, change the port from time to time. Then change the listing in your ISP settings to match and you will be fine....For what it's worth, and again, it's probably not much, if this modem is working I wouldn't necessarily dash out to buy an external unless you've got money to burn. I know that Billy Bob is a long time advocate of externals, and he's probably correct, but my own, very limited, personal experience had not been so happy. Probably my fault or a faulty modem, so peace, Billy Bob. Just offering a mildly divergent opinion....In any event, good job again. You're to be commended for your perserverance.

 

externals, and he's probably correct, but my own, very limited, personal experience had not been so happy

And the ANCIENT US Robotics ( one of the FIRST 56K ) that I have has been used on everything from Win3.1 to XP Pro.

And on more machines than I care to count. It has even illiminated a problem or two such as abbeyhurst has until the party concerned could get a new one.

Once I hit Win98 I never even had to install separate driver. And XP took it like nothing. Just plugged it in. It did not stay long as I have no use for it. So it was only plugged in to see just how good XP was.

BillyBob

 

Well guys I'm sorry to put a little blight on your day, but I ain't cured... yesterday the modem hung with refularity - once even emitting a deafening scream until I scrambled and muted it, then rebooted. I did discover though that if I wait a minute or two, I can re-establish the connection w/o rebooting.
I'm considering two options: a) determining ALL the files for ALL the devices using the modem (Audio, Midi, Wave, etc.), removing them all and then supplying my W(* CD for everything (I still think I've got a conflict in the driver files); and b) Taking another shot at moving to W2000. I did attempt a move to W2000 a month ago but stubbed my toe in the process and in the interests of time pressures dropped back to W98.... in part because Microsoft did not include my ESS internal modem in it's W2K Compatible Hardware List (CHL).......

Oh, well.........

 

-HELP-
I am THOROUGHLY confused with seing all of those things relating to a Modem.
Is the Modem and the Audio all on the same card ?

I can say that that part can also apply to an External as it usually takes a minute or two for RNNAPP ( that spelling does not look right but I have no way to verify ) to shut down.

BillyBob

 

Downloadable Software ISA AudioDriveâ„¢ PCI AudioDriveâ„¢ Audio/ Modem Combo PCI Modems ISA Modems ESS Audio/Modem/Combo Identification Instructions Go To User Friendly Print Page The software ... ... ESS PCI. Audio/Modem Combo. Windows. 95/98. (VXD). Windows. 98SE. (WDM). Windows. ME. (WDM) ... Maestro3.comm. ES1980 Maestro-3 Audio + ES56CVM-PI Modem ...

Found info here

This answers my question about all in one. ( I think )

BillyBob

 

The above small bit of info also now explains why the mess up when trying to update drivers. They were apparently THE WRONG ONES.

You may need to completley remove everything related to Audio/Modem and start from the beginning.

BB

 

BillyBob - yup, the modem is an ESS voice/fax/wave modem and when i drill into the driver files I've identified at least 4 drivers for the Audio portion and 2 for the Wave device.

I've just taken a look at the ESS support website that you gave me and I'm going to exercise due diligence there and download a complete set and (hopefully) install a consistent set of drivers for this modem. As you may remember when I started this nightmare thread, my initial request was how to reinstall a stable (yet older) set of driver files after an HP download of an 'updated' driver started giving me fits.......
Let me re-state how much I appreciate your continuing help/advice in this mess... I'll let you know how successful I am with the ESS download/implementation.

 

BillyBob - well I now appear to be stable!! Thanks to you guys and some increased awareness on my part I'm now up 'n' running. The ESS website you provided was the trigger... I went there and downloaded the exact driver for my modem, loaded it and found things were still honked up... further evaluation showed that I have a 'combo' device which required a different download. That made me think that I'd been using the wrong technique in trying to reload my old driver, i.e. I'd been directing Windows 'Add/Remove Hdwre' dialogue to my D directory where the files were, but what I should have been doing was actually executing the Setup.exe on the D drive to let it do a full installation of the driver set for all the devices... So with that success in place, I now have a stable (albeit old) set useable, with another updated set from ESS on disk in readiness if needed...... whew! live and learn.. And thank you all for your help.. you'll not hear any more from me now - I've consumed enough of your time!! Bye.

 

Well now. That is GREAT news.​

Thanks for posting same.

BillyBob