Once apon a time Chick Martin said, 'Modem Problems' to All...

 CM> Hi All, I wonder if anyone out there can help me with some info. I
 CM> have a NetComm Pocket Rocket 1234 external modem. Unfortunately it came
 CM> without documentation (the price was right) and I have no idea what it
 CM> can and can't  do.  It's chugging along at 2400 baud at present but I
 CM> suspect that may have  more to do with the limits of my I/O board than
 CM> the modem itself. Which brings  me to my primary problem. I origionally
 CM> purchased a Complete Modem Plus  internal fax/modem. Following the
 CM> instructions in the manual I assigned it to comm port 4 (a switch on
 CM> the back of the card) disabled comm 2 on my I/O card to free up IRQ 3
 CM> and all should have been well.  It wasn't.
 
Well first I would suggest, avoid COM4 if you dont absolutely have to use
it. You're not using Win95 are you? Apparently it has some problems with
COM4, although I'm not sure of the details. Also some Video cards can
clash with the address range used by COM 4 when running in some modes.

Bottom line: _dont use COM4_

If you can properly disable COM2 on your IO card, then you should set
your modem to COM2. To test this, disable COM2 on your IO card, leave
your modem out, and run a system checking utility like AGSI, or Sysinfo,
and make sure COM2 doesnt show up. Then put your modem in, and check
again that the modem DOES show up, as COM2.

 CM> PortInfo V1.0 tells me I have an IRQ conflict and
 CM> that comm 4 is at address 2E8, this is the address normally assigned to
 CM> comm 3 which  shares IRQ 4 with Comm 1 and consequently my mouse
 CM> driver, hence the IRQ conflict.
 
Umm, problem with your theory here, is that 2e8 *IS* the correct address
for COM4 - thats what makes it COM4!

I think PortInfo might be throwing in a red-hearing here, you need to
take the reports of sysinfo type programs with a grain of salt,
especially when they try to report IRQ usage. There is _NO_ infalable
software only way of checking for IRQ conflicts on ISA bus machines...
the checking programs only try their best...

 CM> Assigning the modem to other ports
 CM> didn't help and neither did swapping comm port addresses in DOS.  What
 CM> am I doing wrong??

Hard to say. I would suggest you leave your modem at COM2 to eliminate any
possible COM4 problems, and start looking elsewhere for your problem.

Try dialing different systems, get your phone line checked out for noise
etc...and check your init strings...sounds much more like a modem problem
than a COM port problem...

Regards,
Simon

... Old computers make great boat anchors.
--- FMail/386 0.98a