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Old 09-29-2004, 10:07 PM   #1
Cerek
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Join Date: August 27, 2004
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Sad

I've hooked up my old PC again (the one I had upgraded this summer). Since getting online, I've noticed that it keeps "dropping" my dial-up connection and having to redial. So far tonight, it has happened twice in less than 5 minutes.

It could be a problem with my ISP, because my email wouldn't pull up either...but I didn't have this problem with my back-up PC.

Since I upgraded this machine, I've had nothing but problems with it (thanks to the CRAPPY job the guys at the computer store did). And - sadly - I'm not tech savvy enough to fix them on my own...but I'm gonna try to learn cause I'm TIRED of spending money with these yuckapucks and getting nothing in return.

So, if anybody has suggestions as to why my dial-up keeps dropping...I would appreciate it.
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Old 09-29-2004, 11:34 PM   #2
Bungleau
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Hmmm... sorry to hear about the lack of ability of your local geeks. May they rot in stale mountain dew and moldy pizza...

Now, for this machine... methinks your problem will lie in one of a couple of areas: either the modem itself or some internal settings.

A couple of things to get started:

1. What OS are you running?

2. What are the physical specs of the machine? CPU, memory, virtual memory settings, drive space, etc.

3. When they upgraded you, what exactly did they do?

4. Is your modem internal or external?

5. Can you wipe the machine and start over without feeling bad about it?

A couple of things come to mind...

1. Try another modem. Borrow one from someone else (preferably an external one) and see how it works.

2. Do a full scan with Spybot, Ad Aware, HiJack This, Trend Micro, and any thing else that feels good [img]smile.gif[/img]

3. Completely delete all your dial-up networking configurations, reboot, and re-enter them. Be sure to write down the details first... and don't restore any that you don't know that you need.

4. A repair installation of your OS may help... but that's just a short distance from a reinstall, which is usually more effective.

As far as the tech-savviness needed for working on your machine, it's really not that bad. Give me a shout if you've got questions... I really can't make it much worse
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Old 09-30-2004, 02:31 AM   #3
T-D-C
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Also what type of Phone do you have hooked up to the line?

If its touch tone then some older modems can drop out when the phones draw a little power from the phone line to power the touch tone phone. This used to happen to me every 15 minutes.

Note: this was years ago and only happend to me with an old modem. This shouldn't effect new modems.
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Old 09-30-2004, 05:19 AM   #4
Cerek
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bungleau:
[QB] Hmmm... sorry to hear about the lack of ability of your local geeks. May they rot in stale mountain dew and moldy pizza...

Now, for this machine... methinks your problem will lie in one of a couple of areas: either the modem itself or some internal settings.

A couple of things to get started:

1. What OS are you running? XP Home Edition

2. What are the physical specs of the machine? CPU, memory, virtual memory settings, drive space, etc. Don't really know how to give you all the physical specs. I have a 120gb HD. Don't know precisely how the memory is allocated, but that shouldn't be a problem.

3. When they upgraded you, what exactly did they do? I originally just wanted to upgrade the HD from 40gb to 120gb. When it was all said and done, however, they also installed a new DVD drive, a new motherboard and I'm pretty sure I got new modem also. IIRC, the only thing they didn't end up replacing was the CDWR drive and the Floppy drive. Thay also added a lot of software I didn't ask for (such as Belarc, Pop-Up Stopper, and some others. I have a sneaking suspicion the problems I had after my initial visit are a result of the stuff they added).

4. Is your modem internal or external? Internal.

5. Can you wipe the machine and start over without feeling bad about it? I've given that some very serious thought. My wife even suggested wiping it without saving ANYTHING and just starting with a brand new, fresh-installed machine. I'm hoping to avoid that if possible, but that may end up being my final solution.

A couple of things come to mind...

1. Try another modem. Borrow one from someone else (preferably an external one) and see how it works. Well, the modem certainly wasn't a problem before. I've had the machine for 2 years now and had no problems with it until this past summer. I had used up almost ALL of the 40gb HD space and the machine started "freezing" when I tried to play BGII. I thought I just needed more memory, so I went in to upgrade to the biggest available HD at the time. When I got my machine back and tried to play BGII again, the machine wouldn't freeze - it would actually "blink" and REBOOT completely. It did this every single time I tried to play the game. So again, I think it is something THEY did, but they said *I* had changed the settings and messed the machine up. I still had to pay for the hardware they installed, but I refused to pay for the labor involved. Needless to say, they are "on my list" now.

2. Do a full scan with Spybot, Ad Aware, HiJack This, Trend Micro, and any thing else that feels good [img]smile.gif[/img] Haven't heard about Trend Micro, but the others are S.O.P. for me. Still, it can't hurt to try again.

3. Completely delete all your dial-up networking configurations, reboot, and re-enter them. Be sure to write down the details first... and don't restore any that you don't know that you need. What details are you talking about that I need to write down?

4. A repair installation of your OS may help... but that's just a short distance from a reinstall, which is usually more effective. Yeah, it does look like I'm just going to have to do a fresh install and be done with it. [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img]

As far as the tech-savviness needed for working on your machine, it's really not that bad. Give me a shout if you've got questions... I really can't make it much worse Thanks for your help. BTW, I had to redial my connection twice while typing this response.
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Old 09-30-2004, 07:33 AM   #5
RoSs_bg2_rox
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I think what you should initially do is try a new modem. Had any storms lately? I had this exact same problem you see, a few months ago when I was still on dialup. What had happened was the internal modem had been struck by lightning. I had tried everything else except replacing the modem, and it worked just fine after that. The same thing happened a couple of years back, but Im not sure if it was the same problem or not.

So basically, don't do anything else until you have changed the modem.

Good luck [img]smile.gif[/img]

edit: also it doesnt have to have been a storm, just anything that could have caused the microelectronics of the modem to change slightly. Maybe it was dropped or something like that. There are a whole range of possiblities.

[ 09-30-2004, 07:36 AM: Message edited by: RoSs_bg2_rox ]
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Old 09-30-2004, 08:36 AM   #6
Cerek
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Quote:
Originally posted by RoSs_bg2_rox:
I think what you should initially do is try a new modem. Had any storms lately? I had this exact same problem you see, a few months ago when I was still on dialup. What had happened was the internal modem had been struck by lightning. I had tried everything else except replacing the modem, and it worked just fine after that. The same thing happened a couple of years back, but Im not sure if it was the same problem or not.

So basically, don't do anything else until you have changed the modem.

Good luck [img]smile.gif[/img]

edit: also it doesnt have to have been a storm, just anything that could have caused the microelectronics of the modem to change slightly. Maybe it was dropped or something like that. There are a whole range of possiblities.
This machine hasn't been hooked to the internet in over 3 months. Of course, it could have happened before then, but I wasn't having any problems with the connection until after the upgrade.
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Old 09-30-2004, 10:36 AM   #7
Bungleau
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Here's my initial gut-reaction diagnosis, based on your response.

You probably are in need of a defrag and optimization of virtual memory use. If your original hard drive was almost full, then some games may have failed to load just because of that.

By virtual memory optimization, I mean setting your virtual memory to a fixed limit of 2-3 times your physical memory. Find your physical memory by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties. Change the Virtual Memory setting by going to the Advanced Tab of Properties and clicking on the Performance settings. Windows likes to manage it for you; tell it no thanks, and ignore any warnings.

*edit* Forgot to mention... if you've got two hard drives, put virtual memory on the other one (not the one where Windows is installed). You'll improve performance, at least technically.

I'd still try another modem (an external one, since it's far easier to set up). That will either prove or disprove that the modem is responsible, and it will do it fairly quickly.

By the Dial-up Networking (DUN) properties, I mean things like the phone number, user ID, and Password for each of the DUN connections, as well as any configuration information. Write those down, 'cause the time to find out you don't know your actual ID with your ISP is *NOT* moments after deleting the dial-up icon...

If you do wipe the hard drive, I'd suggest saving all your data, but not necessarily the programs. On my machine now, I have a separate directory (c:\yyyaddon) that contains all the other applications I install. Each one gets its own folder, and if I need to refresh my machine, I reinstall Windows and then reinstall the things in that folder. It's amazing how many things you can install...

Hmmm... and one other thought that's crept in. Go to Add/Remove programs and remove anything that you're sure you don't need, or that they installed. Some things may not uninstal cleanly, but it can't hurt. You can also use HiJack This to eliminate some of the things that launch at boot time.

BTW, Trend Micro is an online virus scanner. And it's free

And for a final note, whenever I upgrade a hard drive in my machines, I simply add a second hard drive and keep the first one. Install Windows on the second one and boot from it, but if you need to, you can go back to the first one. My main home machine has a 20GB and 30GB drive, and my kids' computers have a couple of 2GB drives each.

I know, I know... I'm cheap on the kids' computers. They'll get upgraded... eventually... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 09-30-2004, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]
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Old 09-30-2004, 10:36 AM   #8
Cloudbringer
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Is it doing it all the time, Cerek? Or just during high volume times for the ISP? Or during storms or such? I hope you can figure it out and get it working properly. Nothing more annoying than a pc that keeps misfiring when you just updated and improved it!
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Old 09-30-2004, 12:54 PM   #9
RoSs_bg2_rox
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bungleau:
my kids' computers have a couple of 2GB drives each.

I know, I know... I'm cheap on the kids' computers. They'll get upgraded... eventually... [img]smile.gif[/img]
Jees o, shocking, you just don't want them to be playing games and lead a life of corruption do you

Cerek, whats the update? Got hold of another modem yet?
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Old 09-30-2004, 01:38 PM   #10
Cerek
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Quote:
Originally posted by RoSs_bg2_rox:
quote:
Originally posted by Bungleau:
my kids' computers have a couple of 2GB drives each.

I know, I know... I'm cheap on the kids' computers. They'll get upgraded... eventually... [img]smile.gif[/img]
Jees o, shocking, you just don't want them to be playing games and lead a life of corruption do you

Cerek, whats the update? Got hold of another modem yet?
[/QUOTE]Not yet. But I think we may actually have an external modem lying around at work somewhere. I'll check my miscellaneous computer supplies and see if I can find one.

The most annoying software they installed is the Pop-Up Blocker. It works great. In fact, it works TOO good, because it even blocks the PREVIEW SCREEN when I try to preview my posts (which is highly annoying). I can bypass the block by holding the CNTRL button down, but it is just a hassle I don't like dealing with.
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