Sound and modem problem

A friend has a Toshiba Tecra 720 laptop, which was running the original version of W95. The sound and modem were working just fine.

He tried putting NT4 on this machine, but couldn't get any drivers to work properly.

Then he tried putting W98se on, and couldn't get the drivers to work either.

So I offered to try ebay to find an orig W95 OS and re-install it for him. He has the orig Toshiba driver CD that came with the laptop.

In this process, the drive had been reformated to fat32. I got it back to fat16; put W95 on it, and tried installing the drivers using the order listed in the "reconfigure" book that came with the laptop.

The modem drivers install fine; but the diagnostic test comes back with "the modem doesn't respond. Make sure it is plugged in and the IRQ is set properly." How to do that in a laptop is beyond me.

But oh dear, when I get to the sound card, and make sure the BIOS settings are what Toshiba recommends for the soundcard, and install the drivers, all phoey breaks loose.

Major hangs; display garbled, freezes. And the BIOS settings keep getting changed "by themselves ".

Could trying those other two OS's have messed with the BIOS?

Could trying those two OS's have messed with the hardware?

Any suggestions? besides getting a new laptop?

Thanks for all your help!

 

First, I doubt that the BIOS is messed from installing a driver.
Have you been here: http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...795&smoid=true&ct=DL&ListType=Model&x=13&y=10
I think what's happening, is the device you are installing needs a particular IRQ, and BIOS is not set to allow it. It then conflicts with another device using the same IRQ.
Just from the toshiba site, I know it's got a Crystal Labs sound chip, a CT65550 Video chip, a Rockwell chipset 28.8 modem, and has one upgradeable ram slot.
Try running Belarc or similar on it, and find out more about it's guts, then format it to fat32, install 98 on it (or at LEAST 95b), and then drivers. There's much more support for IRQ hardware in those, than 95a. Basically 95 a is a gui on top of DOS, much like Win3.1

 

Thanks reboot

This laptop had 98se on it when he gave it to me to see what I could do with it. I couldn't get the modem or sound to work either.

What is Belarc and where do I get it?

Would it show if the modem and soundcard are still good?

I really appreciate your help

 

Another question, reboot

hi reboot!

I did a search and found Belarc advisor. Thanks for the tip!

Another question:

The only drivers I have are the original ones on a CD that came with the laptop which are for fat16.

Will these drivers work OK under fat32 and W98se??

 

Drivers are not for FAT anything, they are for windows, and most win95 drivers will work in win98.
Once you know what hardware is in the machine, you can usually source out win98 drivers on the web, if the ones you have don't work.
The idea is, win95a is a POS, and 95b even, or preferrably 98 will be much better, once it's all working.

 

hi reboot, (or anyone)

The last three times I've tried installing a OS on this puppy, when the desktop is supposed to come up at the end of the install, I'm getting the following fatal exception error.It's the exact same error whether W95 or W98.

fatal exception 0E has occured at 0028:C00521E6 in VXD
VPICD(01) + 00001EC2 ... blah blah blah

and when I hit any key, it comes again to the teal colored blank screen and the password box shows up. When I hit enter, then it just hangs.

What now?

(sigh...)

 

A few things to check:
1.) Disable the IDE PREFETCH in BIOS.
2.) Set PnP OS Installed to "NO" in BIOS.
Also, bad RAM is VERY suspect in these types of errors.

 

hi reboot,

Nos. 1 & 2 in your last post don't exist in this BIOS.

Reading about the RTC, I left the laptop on for 36 hours and it seems to have recharged the RTC battery. Installed W95b twice and it went good both times. All the driver/app installs went good, except for the modem and sound card.

I installed Belarc and ran it twice, once before installing the modem and sound card drivers (I then disabled the sound drivers so I could keep working) and afterwards. Neither the sound or modem were detected BEFORE putting the drivers there.... and afterwards, it gave me the drivers for both even tho both were disabled--giving them red X's in device mgr.

So, another question... if the modem and sound cards are no longer working... kaput...

what exactly would happen when one tries installing the drivers for those devices?

Thanks so much for putting up with all my ??'s

 

I do not think either the Sound card or the modem are as you say Kaput.

There may be just the very common IRQ Conflict between the two. And a very common occurence after doing the above. Even in Desktops.

I know nothing about Laptops but I will ask. Is there anyway to remove the Modem. I would bet that the sound would work if you could.

BillyBob

 

The modem and sound are builtin, and are both "soft ", that is dependent on drivers to work.
Disable the sound card in device mangler (disable in this profile), then simply attempt a driver update on the modem. If it will install, then you can re-enable the sound and it may also require an update, even if it's not really an updated driver.

 

Giving up on the internals...

thanks! reboot. I've already tried disabling the sound and installing the modem.... which still does not respond.

SO.....

I reformatted and installed W98se this morning...
On the last reboot before coming up to the desktop, I went into safe mode and disabled the sound drivers; rebooted and got into the desktop just fine.

W98se got the display, pcmcia, cd-rom, etc. etc., just fine and correct!! Very impressed with it.

I've already installed the apps the owner wants to run from the hdd.

Found an external serial modem with call-waiting and it's ordered. Found a 128mb RAM for this exact laptop on ebay and it's ordered also.

The owner doesn't really need the sound for doing emails and stuff, so it can just stay disabled forever

I really appreciate all the help I've gotten here; and hope I never have to deal with this laptop again.

When everything is on and working to the owner's satisfaction, he will bring it back and I'll Ghost an image for each of the four drives and burn them on a CD. Then it will only take minutes to put it back brand new

...unless something else goes wrong with the hardware... sigh

 

BillyBob,

I'm guessing that this laptop is a good nine years old. So wouldn't be surprised at hardware becoming dysfunctional

After the owner telling me how he had it upgraded from W95 to W98 and everything was working just fine, did he leave it alone??? NOOOOOOO... he then decided to try NT4... just installing it on over the top of W98 upgrade... when that didn't work, he then installed W98se on TOP of the NT on TOP of the W98 upgrade on TOP of W95... get the picture??

If I was a nine-year-old piece of electronic equipment, after this treatment, I probably wouldn't feel like working either

I don't feel like taking the laptop apart at this point... since finding a external modem and memory for good prices.

As far as I'm concerned, the sound can stay dead

Thanks! for all your help

 

Age has nothing to do with it. At least I do not think so.

Yes. The treatment may well be another story.

I have a Desktop that is at least 11 years old and still going strong. But I also had problems with it with when TRYING to use and Internal modem.

But I DO NOT try to push it. I have 98SE on it had have NO plans of pushing it any further.

But it would not surprise me at all if once you get the Internal Modem out of the picture to see the Sound work again.

BillyBob