In the last 8 months I've gone through 5 modems. What the hell am i doing wrong?
I got a Compaq Pressario, its going through modems like my old 77 power wagon was going through starter motors.
I'm obviously a dinosaur when it come to this kind of stuff. Any answers for this happening?

Thanks to all who reply.

what happens to the modems? do they just crap out?

Forget about the modem.  Go to a cable hookup or better yet DSL.

Are these internal modems or external?  Modems are very reliable so this is very rare.  If it's an internal modem, have you tried putting it in a different slot?  

Let me know more specifics and I can give you some more info.

Thanks.

First indication is weird sound in place of dial tone [on phone]

Try to get on line and screen pops up saying connection failed.

Now, when i unplug phone line from back of puter and plug directly into phone jack [on wall] phone works fine. Run it through my puter, doesn't work, so I change modems. Then all works fine again.

Luckily, the store keeps swapping them out for me, so at least i'm not dropping 20 bucks each time.

????? you mean you unplug you phone from your computer right?
if the phoneline is not plugged directly into the computer what is it plugged into?

I'm going to approach this from the assumption that it is extremely unlikely that you would get five bad modems in a row. This would only happen if there was some cause such as a conflict in hardware design such as power levels that caused failure or fluctuations (do you have a ups?) etc.
I'm going to suggest that what you may have is a problem with your telephone circuit that is probably in your wall jack or cord from jack to modem.

Your wall jack, if it is of most common designs, is not airtight and every time there is an air temperature and/or pressure change in the wall,  (outside wind, doors opening, day/night etc.) is sucking air in and out through the port. Think of it as a strainer for dust and moisture. Your computer has a fan ventilating inside which causes a constant pressure change and if the port of the modem is not relatively airtight, it too will act as a strainer catching dust anytime the computer is on.

Your computer is probably in your bedroom where you sleep, or may be near a bathroom or kitchen. The dust by itself won't cause much trouble, but minor increases in the moisture level  that you probably wouldn't notice (from breathing, cooking, showers) are enough to cause corrosion; the dust acts as a bridge for the moisture, contributing to corrosion and run-on sentences, which  may be causing the resistance between the metal-to-metal contacts of the jack and cord   to increase, (dirty open, which is what I think is happening), or the corrosion may be causing a high resistance short, usually  accompanied by static, which can be at low levels and not be obvious (or may be what you are hearing) or both. Also, the baseboard type jack is prone to this problem, especially when it turned upwards so that foreign material falls into it.

So, what to do? Remove the cord from the wall and inspect it. The contacts should be shiny gold and clean. if you see a dark spot in the plastic under the contacts , moisture is a definite problem  and the cord is garbage.  Any blue-green appearance is a sign of corrosion.
Look also at the modem end although the trouble is less likely to be there. Now its just me,  but I'd replace the cord just to eliminate it as a cause of your poblems. I've seen them cause many problems from being stepped on, chairs rolled over them, melted by heaters etc. And they're cheap. Don't waste your money on high falutin gold plated super duper cords, just don't get one longer than you need and don't coil up any extra.

Now look at the jack. Again, only clean, shiny straight. wires that look like they are not bent, and under enough tension to make a good contact when the conector is in place. Sometimes, a wire is weakened and doesn't make a good connection. Or has been bent or out of position. If it doesn't look clean and straight, you may have a problem there. Same with the modem ports.

I think that when you experience a problem, your "test " of plugging the phone into the wall may be causing  enough movement that the corrosion is temporarily rubbed enough to allow a good enough connection for the phone to seem to be working fine.

The next time it happens, wiggle the cords, unplug and replug, and see if starts working again. Then we can get into the exotic stuff.

Exotic stuff! Oh God.


Thanks again to all. I'll inspect all connections.

power surge on the phone line is probably frying the electronics
have any thunderstorms around the time they stop working?

I thought so...[:)]



I didn't address the power surge issues and if a quick check of the phone cords and jacks comes up negative, it might be worth directing some attention in that direction. Do you live in a rural area, have electric motors or appliances causing surges on your line? Ever see your room lights flicker or dim when something kicks on in the house? How old is the electrical system in your house? Does your phone line run a long distance under power lines from the pole to your house? Is your computer plugged into a grounded outlet?
Does it seem to happen when there are solar flares? [thinking]

Could be that POS.

You too eh?

I've been mulling this over and it is just about impossible to get a good diagnosis over the internet. Something that would really help nail it down is to see if the funny noise still occurs if you unplug the phone cord (at wall) when it is happening. If it does, the noise is originating in the modem and something is causing it to fail. If not, it's more likely but not definite that the problem is the phone line.