Philips "Easy-Connect" modem

From: Bill Dawson <whdawson_at_mlynk.com>
Date: Tue Aug 29 10:50:59 2000

Richard,

-> I know this isn't what we're here to discuss, but I was wondering if
anybody
-> uses or has experience with a Philips 56K-flex "EasyConnect" modem.

Not this particular modem.

-> I recently replaced her hard-disk for her,

Umm...

-> I installed her hard disk and reinstalled the Windows95
-> (no update to '98 because the OSR-2 version of '95 worked
-> so satisfactorily for her) and everything works beautifully
-> EXCEPT the MODEM.

-> This model is a Plug-N-Play modem, and slid in effortlessly when
-> I first set it up for her, but her motherboard is not a plug-n-play
-> type of board.

There's the rub.

-> It doesn't attempt to go out and manipulate the devices that are out
-> there in order to configure the interrupts and port locations.

It can't because it can't detect it. Usually there is a driver supplied
with a PNP modem
that will allow you to initialize it as to which port and interrupt it
will use when using it in a non-PNP motherboard. The driver has the
modem PNP setup port address imbedded in it to do this, whereas a PNP
motherboard and BIOS will do it for you. I use the word driver loosely
here, as it is just a program that configures the modem and usually does
not stay resident. This driver will usually be run from within
autoexec.bat. Some modems use NVRAM to store the settings and the
driver only needs to be used when changing modem port assignments. This
doesn't sound like the case here. Some need to run the driver every
time the system is restarted. The driver must be set up to run as the
system boots, while it is still in Dos mode. If you install and run the
driver from the W95 setup disk before starting to install W95, the modem
is activated and the W95 install will detect it.

On the old hard drive the driver was present, because you used likely
used a setup disk for the modem when you installed it. I always check
out the autoexec.bat, config.sys, config.dos, etc. before regenning a
W95 system. If you have the old hard drive, then set it back up and
pull the necessary files, including the modem driver.

-> I'm curious whether anyone has had to solve this sort of problem
before and has a solution.

Oh, yes. Voice of experience here. The same, or worse, difficulties
will be found with PNP sound cards.

-> I've tried everything I could think of and have had no luck at all.
-> Any reasonable suggestions are welcome.

Hope I've been of some help.

Bill
Received on Tue Aug 29 2000 - 10:50:59 BST