On Wednesday, October 02 1996, Frank Iuston wrote to All ...

 FI> I have an IBM 486 slc 2, comprising of a single speed cd rom (one i
 FI> need a driver for ..), 1.44 floppy, 130 mb hard disk, sb pro
 FI> card plus mouse and scanner. I have an internal 14.4k modem...this is
 FI> where the problem lies.

Yes, there is a definite problem; that being that your gear is too old! :-)

 FI> I just cant use the modem in windows 3.1.. If i try, it will freeze
 FI> and the only way it will work is if i move the mouse around..now
 FI> before you say "change the irq's", I've already done that
with nothing
 FI> so far. The modem has 4 dip switches and I've set them to the com port
 FI> it's in...which so far every single slot in my computer seems to be
 FI> damned com 3..I don't get it. The slots themselves aren't numbered at
 FI> the back so I have no idea where I'm plugging the modem into, although
 FI> its always com 3 apparently even though i change the slots.

Internal modems aren't plugged into COM ports per se. Rather, your internal
modem is configured to use a COM port other than the default two ports on
whatever serial card you may have in your machine.

Chances are that you have an ordinary 16-bit serial card plugged into your
motherboard. The (physical) serial ports on this card are COM1 and COM2.

What I'm about to say is classic evidence of why internal modems are a
bloody pain to bother with. Read on ...

Since you have COMs 1 and 2, you'll naturally want to configure your modem
to use COM3. Make sense so far? Good. Problem: COM3 uses the same IRQ that
COM1 uses, which means that if your mouse is on COM1 (which it *probably*
is), then you won't be able to use your modem and mouse simultaneously.
This sounds like what the problem is.

Here is what you should do: Provided that you DON'T use COM2 for anything
at all, configure your modem to use COM4. COMs 2 and 4 share the same IRQ,
so provided that you have nothing plugged into COM2, COM4 is free for use.

You'll need to refer to your trusty modem manual for instructions on how to
configure it for a certain COM port/IRQ combination. Have fun
.

Here's one last (and rather biased) piece of advice: ditch the internal
modem and buy a USR Courier (or any other GOOD EXTERNAL) modem. All you
need to do is plug it into your COM port, and away you go. Set and forget,
basically.

John (japp{at}mpx.com.au)

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