WinBook Tech Article
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Subject: Internal Modem Troubleshooting for the WinBook XP5 running Windows 3.1x
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Tech Article Number: WBTA01040730

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Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the modem in your XP5 WinBook Computer.

Start by checking some simple, but often overlooked problems.

    1. Make sure your modem is connected to the phone line properly. Test the line by plugging a telephone in and making sure you have a dial tone. Make sure the phone line is not a digital or it goes through a PBX phone system.
    2. Make sure you have added any prefixes that are required for you to dial out, such as 9 or 7.
    3. Test your modem by dialing a different number and/or software program. If the modem is working using these alternate settings, chances are it’s software program you are using or an issue on the other end of the phone line and you’ll need to contact your software vendor or service provider for support.
    4. Make sure you’re not running any other communications program. They can conflict with your modem and cause it not to function correctly. An example would be a fax program.

If you’ve followed the above steps and still getting modem errors, there are settings to check on your WinBook to ensure your modem is set up correctly:

    1. Make sure the BIOS settings is correct. Exit windows to DOS. At the C:\ prompt, hold down the <Ctrl> <Alt> <S> keys simultaneously. This will bring you into the BIOS setup program. Once in the BIOS, press <PgDn> twice times to go to the advanced area. Listed here will be a setting for internal modem. Make sure this is set to 2f8h. If is it disabled or set to a different settings, press the spacebar till the setting is set to 2f8h. Press <Esc> key and then press <F4> to save your changes, and the unit will reboot back into windows.
    2. Check to see if another device has made changes to one of your system files. Double left click on the Main icon, then the File Manager icon. Now click on File to bring up the file menu, then click on Run. Type sysedit on the run line and hit enter. This will bring up you System Configuration Editor, which contains all of your system files. First, check the C:\windows\system.ini file. Look for the line that starts with comm.drv=. This line should read comm.drv=comm.drv. If it reads anything else, a program you are running may have modified it and caused your modem not to function. Change it back to comm.drv=comm.drv and test your modem again. Next, look at the c:\windows\win.ini file. The load= and run= lines should be blank. Again if they are followed by anything, they may have been modified by software you installed. Delete any information that follows load= and run= and test your modem again.
    3. Make sure your modem is set on Com port 2. Try testing it in the terminal program built into windows.
    4. Another test that you can run would be to test the modem in dos. At the dos prompt type in: echo atz>com2 and hit enter. If you get an error message "write fault error writing to com2" you might have a hardware problem with your modem.
    5. If you have tried the previous steps and your modem is still not working properly, please call WinBook Technical Support at 1-800-468-1225 and one of our representatives will be able to assist you further.

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