Dialup - disconnecting problem

I have a 'PCI SoftV92 Speakerphone Modem' installed about 2years ago. The driver(dated 2003) that came with was not Ms certified, but it worked ok, 6months ago it started to behave strangely when I tried to disconnect, when right clicking/disconnect on the bottom right icons or left clicking/disconnect in the Status window - disconnection started to take several seconds to happen, sometimes longer. Now I have to force it to do so with Task Manager.
Ms updates recently offered an optional update driver(dated Nov2006)for this very modem which when dowloaded/installed made no difference!
Is this a software or hardware problem
I'm running XPhome/SP2/IE7/OE6, completely up2date with updates/AVG antivirus_spyware
Many thanks

 

Difficult to say conclusively, but my guess would be that if alternative drivers made no difference then it is likely to be hardware.

If you are connecting the PC via a long extension cable, it would worth ruling out that this isn't the problem. Try connecting the PC directly into a primary telephone socket and test.

I'd also get the modem card out of the PC and see if it is possible to identify the exact make and model from the information printed on the card. Then reinsert the card (it is possible that reseating the card may fix the problem!), and get the manufacturer's latest drivers from their site and try those.

If all that fails and considering the price of a new external modems being so cheap, I'd get a new modem rather than spend a lot more time on the problem.

 

Thanks for your reply & advice, I'll not mess around, will get a new one - you mentioned an External modem, is there any advantage of an external over an internal?

 

Mainly personal preference. In that past external modems tended to be self-contained so they didn't interfere with other systems too much. Internal modems tend to load the main CPU and can have driver issues. With USB modems, I don't think the difference is so great.