Re: Oh, that modem problem.

[jberry@islandnet.com (Jonathan Berry)]

Hi.

I've been having 701 modem problems, too.  First time, returned
to IBM, they replaced the modem and the main board. Second
time, about a month ago, again via Easy Serv (5 working days,
as before, including transit time!), they said it was on the
wrong port!  Returned it, with the new port setting (COM1 - but
wasn't it on COM1 before?  All my software had it set for COM1
!).  But with much improved performance.  It would not hang up
or suffer spiralling death syndrome.  However, it could not
download a complete file, even in ZOC.  It would hang up at
exactly the same spot during a zmodem download.

So I went to the IBM ftp site and downloaded new DSP drivers:
it was entitled Audio Drive for ESS688 for OS/2, and the dates are
October 24, 1995.  There are also new drivers for Win95. When I
rebooted, the launchpad came back with white ? inside green
circles.  I despondently erased the old launchpad, but when I
tried accessing my ISP, in a shell account, it worked
PERFECTLY, even downloads.  This was using the shareware ZOC,
in OS/2.  And now I've downloaded about 15 MB of files, not a
single disconnect (although a slowdown when I was running in
the background).

Why should an audio upgrade fix the modem problem? The generic
answer is "don't ask", but here the connection is closer.  The
same Digital Signal Processor that produces sound, also runs
the modem.

Everybody, including IBM, tells you to "get the latest
drivers", but they don't bother when the machine is in the shop
for repair, nor do they even ship new machines with the latest
drivers.  There is some facility in the Thinkpad under OS/2 to
download drivers, but I've never got it to work.  I haven't
seen anything on the website that approximates "latest driver
package".  Each driver seems to come separately, often without
description or documentation, but requiring its own driver
diskette.

"Do as we say, not as we do."

Eventually, the old launchpad came back.  It was something
really innocuous that did it, such as invoking a full-screen
OS/2 session.

One thing I never have gotten right is running Procomm (1987
shareware version) in a DOS box under OS/2.  I've tweaked with
the DOS settings until the cows came home, but I always get
lost characters (usually, but not always, at the beginning of a
text line).  By contrast, Procomm runs flawlessly at 19,200 in
a DOS box under Win95 on a desktop PC.

I hope this is of some help to fellow 701ers with modem woes.

Jonathan Berry
jberry@bbs.sd68.nanaimo.bc.ca
jberry@islandnet.com