Speedstream 5200 Ethernet/USB ADSL Modem

Hello,
My mom (Lucy on this forum) is having problems with her modem and I was wondering if anyone would know what is causing the problem. I am asking for her because I've tried to help to no avail and I might be able to explain the problem a little better than her (I'll try to be as clear as possible)

The problem started a couple of days ago. When she booted up her computer and clicked on her high speed connection (service provider is Bell sympatico) she got a 678 error and then opening IE6 gave her "this page cannot be displayed. "

We did call Bell sympatico and they advised to uninstall the usb driver for the modem and then reinstall it. Her modem (listed in the subject line) is a usb modem. We did that and then had no problem connecting.
When we restarted her computer the same error happened again. This time I moved the usb cable to another usb port and again her internet connection was back but when we rebooted we again could not connect. Trying several things I realized that simply unplugging and replugging back in the modem then establishes the internet connection.
We then spoke with Bell again who thought that it might be a problem with her modem. She has since received a new modem and successfully installed that this afternoon. Unfortunately, the same problem still exists and her modem will only connect when the usb cable is unplugged then plugged back into the usb port every time the computer is restarted. All lights on the modem are green- the modem is connected to the internet but the usb connection to the computer is not recognized on startup. As far as I know, she has no room to install an ethernet card (I know many people say to stay away from usb modems) so that's not an option.
I had her check her device manager for any problems. No problems showing in either her modem's properties or her usbs. Her modem is self powered so disabling power management for the usb root hub is not an option. Tried disabling power management for her modem- no change.

Note: She has four usb ports on her computer. She uses one for her digital camera (not always connected), one for her printer (always connected) and one for her modem. She is having no problems with her printer (recognized at startup) or her camera.

Any suggestions as to what might be causing this and what I can do to fix it would be greatly appreciated. I've tried to search the problem out but have not been able to find any answers yet.

Thanks very much in advance

 

not to discourage you but my son had a usb modem that gave its fair share of problems. problems he had included losing connection and no connection upon startup. have you checked for new drivers and has anything changed on the computer? ie new software or other hardware.

 

Sorry about that- Silly of me not to mention.

Operating system: WindowsXP Home Edition
USB 2.0
Used a new USB cable with the new modem.
It wasn't that long ago that she had a tech guy check out some things and I think that he mentioned adding a ethernet card would not be a good idea. Not really sure why????? Maybe too crowded?

The only new software that she has installed lately is Incredimail. Although I'm not a big fan of that program, I don't see how it could be causing any of this??? A while ago she upgraded her monitor but again it's been months with no problems.

I would have thought that it would show up somewhere in device manager but it states all is working properly.

Any other ideas!

 

I will throw in a thought or two.

The problem seems to occur after boot and can be fixed by resetting the connection. I might suspect some sort of malware or rogue program that is loaded at boot-up and is trying to connect to the internet (or maybe something about the firewall).

I would post a HiJack This log in the Spyware and Viruses forum.

I would be interested if anybody would like to agree or disagree.

Matt

 

Thanks very much for your replies. There is no spyware/adware running. I am constantly monitoring her computer for that. She has spybot, adaware and microsoft antispyware(all up to date). I will have her do a hijackthis log and take a look at it. I've had my experience with spyware and I can usually spot it. There is definitely nothing in her startup to indicate it though.

I'll have her give her computer guy a call about an ethernet card.

Thanks again for the quick responses!

 

Not an answer to this issue but might be a point of interest to some...

Most DSL/Cable companies will tell you that You can not hook up a high speed modem to a win 98 machine through a NIC and must use USB. This is just plain not true! What IS true is that the "techs" <--term used very loosly... are either too lazy or just don't have the knowledge to do it. A win 98 machine will handle high speed through a NIC with no problem, it just can't handle the install software which is usually garbage anyway. A couple of months ago I set up a customer with a dual boot, 2000 and 98, system and DSL. He had just been 98 and using USB for the high speed which drastically cuts your actual speed. Set up the DSL on the 2000 boot, coppied the network settings, plugged the settings into the 98 boot and all worked flawless. His download speeds went from 50s and 60s to 360s to 380s.

Just remember that when your talking to a high speed tech it is very possible that you know more about it than they do.

 

How old is your mom's system? If not real old it is quite possible it has NIC built in. Look at the back panel for a plug. If you see one make sure it is enabled in the bios. I wouldn't worry much if you don't have an install CD if the plug is there. Win XP should find and recognise the NIC.

And YES, as stated in another post, check for driver updates for the modem.

You could also try removing the USB from device manager and rebooting to bring them back.

 

Her system is about 4 or 5 years old. Nope, there is definitely no built-in NIC.

She is using the most up-to-date drivers for the modem.

I have read a few posts that say to remove the usbs from device manager. Do I have to uninstall all usb devices first or can I just remove everything under "universal serial bus controllers"

Her printer (a Lexmark X83) is the only usb device that is plugged in all of the time,

Thanks again for the replies

 

No, I wouldn't uninstall the printer and stuff, just remove USB from device manager.

 

Thanks,
I'll have to wait until I get over there. I'll post back if it corrects the problem.

 

Removing usb had no effect. All still showing o.k. in device manager.

Now she can't get on at all- no connection- getting 718 error. She has Pc-cillan firewall running thought that might be causing the problem. I tried to get her to disable it but the option is greyed out.
Note: Windows firewall is not running at the same time.

Any other ideas???

Thanks

 

I would question the disable option on the firewall being greyed out. Don't know if others would agree but I'd uninstall the firewall and reinstall it.

 

I think that's odd too. Unfortunately, until I get over there (which may not be for a couple of days) I won't really be able to see what's going on. I know she doesn't have the option to just uninstall the firewall (already looked for that) so she'll have to totally uninstall the pc-cillan internet security suite. I've been able to help her with a lot of things remotely but because she can't even connect to the internet anymore, that's not even an option.

Thanks for the input and I'll post back if we solve the problem.

Update: Spoke too soon, went to trend-micros support. There is a way to uninstall the firewall separately (hope that isn't greyed out) so I'll have her do that. Also going to check to make sure her firewire port (listed under network adapters) is disabled- think I had to do that myself a while ago.

 

Hooray!!!!!!!!

It worked. Disabled firewire port, uninstalled Pc-cillan firewall- reenabled windows firewall- SUCCESS

I had my mom reboot 3 times to make sure- everything so far is working again.

Thanks for all the help

 

Glad it all worked out!!