OT: Questions about replacing modems

Whistle
1

Thanks to a generous message board member, I now have a new V.90 56K fax/modem for my PC, which I believe currently has a slower modem installed. I’ve checked to be sure that my PC is compatible with the new modem, in terms of OS as available memory, so I believe I’m ready to install the new modem card…Questions:

  1. This is not a tower configuration PC, rather the older style flat and wide set your monitor on top variety - what’s the best way to get remove the cover to gain access to the modem?

  2. This is an older PC (Acer Aspire 2600 series or something) running Win95 - do I need to worry that swapping modems is going to cause any problems from a software standpoint? The new modem includes software that will need to be installed of course, but I’m just wondering if this ever causes problems when switching from the factory installed to new software for the fax/modem

  3. Anything I need to be aware of before I start taking things apart? :smiley:

TIA

Loren

2

On 2002-11-08 08:42, Loren wrote:
Thanks to a generous message board member, I now have a new V.90 56K fax/modem for my PC, which I believe currently has a slower modem installed. I’ve checked to be sure that my PC is compatible with the new modem, in terms of OS as available memory, so I believe I’m ready to install the new modem card…Questions:

  1. This is not a tower configuration PC, rather the older style flat and wide set your monitor on top variety - what’s the best way to get remove the cover to gain access to the modem?

Getting 'em apart varies from case to case, but usually involves pulling a screw or screws from the back. Some cases pull off from the front, so look on the sides for places to grip, too, if you don’t see obvious screws in back. If you can’t figger it out pretty quick, and have a digital cam, take a picture of front, side, and back, and email to me and I’ll see what I can do.

  1. This is an older PC (Acer Aspire 2600 series or something) running Win95 - do I need to worry that swapping modems is going to cause any problems from a software standpoint? The new modem includes software that will need to be installed of course, but I’m just wondering if this ever causes problems when switching from the factory installed to new software for the fax/modem

If the modem is a P&P (Plug and Play), there should be no problem, but I would recommend that you upgrade to Win98 2E like Dale is doing, if you can. It’s much better with P&P items. Otherwise, installing the drivers should be about all it takes. Again, if you run into problems, email me with some details about what you’re seeing and I’ll try to help.

  1. Anything I need to be aware of before I start taking things apart? > :smiley: >

Unplug the main power cord from the back, and disconnect the modem cable. Have a long pair of tweezers or a plunger-type pick-up tool handy, as them durn little screws tend to jump off the edge and find their ways into inaccessible places. :slight_smile: When you remove the modem card, pull straight up, and put the new one in from straight above. Don’t “rock” them if you can avoid it.

Email me or whatever, if you have problems, and I’ll try to help work 'em out. If it gets really bad, I’ll send you my cel number. I used to work in IBM Tech Support, and I’m used to it. :slight_smile: Hope this all helps!
Cheers,
Bill Whedon

TIA

Loren

3

Hi Loren,
As far as opening the case goes, it’s almost impossible for me to tell you how that works. It’s different on different computers. Some have two screwws on the back and a top cover comes off, some habe 4 screws and the whole case slides off, some have clips and no screws, some have push buttons that unlock the case. Best bet for that is to check Acer’s website. As far as the modem goes, Acer may have a modem built into the mother board so it can’t be physically removed. If that’s the case, you will have to disable it in the BIOS, usually a F2 or CTRL Alt ESC keying on bootup to get into the BIOS. If it’s a straight ISA or PCI card, it’s easier especially if the new one is Plug and Play. Just take the old one out, put the new one in, close everything up, and boot it up. Windows 95 has a few plug and play issues but if it doesn’t have driveers as part of the OS, it will usually ask for a manufacturer’s disk. I’m trying to remember how 95 did things, I’ve been working with Windows NT, 2000 and XP for the last few years. I think there is a device manager in the control panel. If it doesn’t ask for drivers, go to the device manager in the control panel and look for anything with a ! or red X over it. That’s probably either the old modem you took out or the new modem you put in. I think there is a Modem category, look there to see if the new modem is there. If not, check the Ports category and see if there is a new COM port added, usually com 2 but could be com 3 or 4 depending on how many serial ports your PC has. Worst case, shut everything down again, remove the new modem, close the case back up and reboot. Afetr it reboots, go into the control panel and remove any other modems that may be there, shut down the PC and put the card back and on reboot it should redetect it. It’s tough trying to cover all the bases in an email or post but this should help some.
May the Force be with you!
-Jim

4

Good stuff, Jim! Loren, here’s a link to the list of desktop systems back to 1998, at the Acer site. They have the manuals in PDF format there, complete with case pics and instructions! Hope it’s some help.
http://csd.acer.com.tw/acer/URMUL1.NSF/1?OpenView&Start=1&Count=50&Expand=1#1

Cheers,
BW
(Edit) you’ll have to cut-and-paste that link, if it doesn’t work. I hate it when there are line-breaks!

[ This Message was edited by: serpent on 2002-11-08 09:41 ]

5

Thanks guys, I got the cover off while I was waiting for a reply - I asked about that originally because even though I had found the proper screws and removed them, the case wouldn’t budge… Turns out though that it was just really stuck.

Anyway, case is off and now I see that the installed modem card is much bigger than the replacement i have: The old one is about an inch longer and twice as wide as the new card - I’m not talking about the mounting bracket of course, that looks like it would fit just fine. Anyway, there’s a WAY more stuff on the old modem card, than on the new one - important looking stuff…so I’m thinking this isn’t a good sign, am I right? Or, have all those extra redboxes, black eprom looking chips, transistors, resistors and/or whatever the other stuff on that old card, just been miniturized and made so redundant that this tiny little replacement card I have will do the job? I can’t help looking at the two and wondering if a bunch of the computers other functions are on the old “Modem” card. It does look like it can be removed, but the receptor socket for the card is much longer than the new card…

Acer support has been of no use to me in the past - they tell you to contact them through e-mail regarding older PC’s, and then they never get back to you when you write.

I’m accessing the web right now through a system that can’t download, and has no ability to deal with PDF anyway, so I’ll have to put the PC back together, then check out the manual…PITA…Thanks for the link though Bill, I appreciate that.

Loren

6

One other question:

There’s a TON of dust inside this thing, like 4 years worth: Should I blow it all out, or would that actually be worse for the PC than leaving where it is?

Loren

7

Loren,

There are 4$US bottles you can buy, it’s pressured air and it’s for removing dust from electronic appliances, might be worth it if your computer is very dusty.

8

Acer may have used a combined sound card/modem card, I’ve seen that before. The only problem is that if you remove the modem, you lose you sound too. It could also be a data/fax/voice card which would have connecting cables to the sound card. I can check out acer’s site and see if I can figure it out for you. Give me a little bit, I’ll post something for you. Can you just verify the model type for me? I don’t see a 2600 on their web site.
-Jim


[ This Message was edited by: Jim_B1 on 2002-11-08 10:18 ]

9

Az,

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking of doing, I just thought I’d ask about it first since I know that in some instances using pressurized air to blow dust “out” of something can actually drive the stuff into even deeper places, causing problems.

Loren

10

Well,

I once dropped a Big Mac on the motherboard of a computer I was assembling a few years ago… and… the Big Mac survived! :slight_smile:

(the computer too!)

11

Blowing dust out is definitely a good idea. Dust can have the effect of insulating chips so they get hotter and don’t cool off as easily. Don’t use a vaccuum cleaner though. Apparently drawing the air out (as opposed to blowing) can create chip damaging static. Modems can be a real can of worms. If “Plug 'n Pray” works then you’ll be fine but it can be a pain messing with IRQs in older machines if you don’t know what you’re doing. Once you get the new modem in don’t forget to change the modem in your dial-up properties to the new one.

Good luck,
David

P.S. Have you checked the System Requirements of this new modem against what you have in your machine???

P.P.S. If you do have the Modem+soundcard combo issue as related above I have a number of pretty decent (ISA) SoundBlaster cards and would be happy to send you one.

[ This Message was edited by: Feadan on 2002-11-08 10:29 ]

12

fit just fine. Anyway, there’s a WAY more stuff on the old modem card, than on the new one - important looking stuff…so I’m thinking this isn’t a good sign, am I right?

Loren-

I’m guessing that it is just miniaturization. We have some old modems here in our office (9600 and 14.4) that are about 8 inches long, and have a “double card” look, with another card bolted to the first one. Now, a lot of modems come built into the motherboard.

Progress, everything gets smaller and works less. :smiley:

Aodhan

13

Jim,

Thanks man! The model number is 5233LR I had it wrong before.

Loren

14

OK, I can’t find anything on the Aspire 2600 but here’s my guess on what to do next. Boot the computer and go into the BIOS (f2 or CTRL-ALT-ESC something like that it should say at bootup how to go into the BIOS) Go though the stuff in there to see if there is a setting to disable the modem. I think this computer has a daughterboard that has a modem connector on it not a seperate modem board like you want to put in. If you can, disable the on board modem in the BIOS then shut down and unplug the PC and install the new modem without removing the existing card, I think that card runs a lot of stuff on the computer but It’s tough to say without seeing it. Just put the modem in a different slot. Remember if it is a PCI card it must go in a PCI slot and an ISA card goes in a ISA slot (ISA cards won’t fit in PCI slots but PCI cards will loosely fit in an isa slot but you should be able to tell if it’s not right) Close up the case, plug everything back in and reboot. Hopefully disabling the modem in the BIOS will free up those resources and the new modem will plug and play fine.
Good luck,
-Jim

[ This Message was edited by: Jim_B1 on 2002-11-08 10:57 ]

15

And thanks to everyone else as well :slight_smile:

Loren

16

I’m not seeing any model 5233LR or a 5200 series on Acer’s site either. Check the BIOS and see if there is a setting for the modem. If there is, do like I said above. Disable it and add the new one in on another slot. That’s still my best guess on it. Sorry I couldn’t get you a definative answer.
-Jim

17

Jim, thanks for checking. Acer isn’t very good when it comes to providing information on their discontined lines I’m afraid, which includes the Aspire Series, which is what I have.

Just out of curiousity, so I know the next time I go looking on their website: Did you search generically for a model 5300, or specifically for the Aspire series 5300 model? I’m just wondering if it’s listed in some unusual way.

Unfortunately there are no free slots, so I guess it boils down to how brave/foolish I want to be about this: Do I take a chance messing with this thing just for an increase in modem speed, hmm…


Loren

18

Is it 5333 or 5233? I was looking for 5233 or the 5200 series. Usually computer manufacturers make a series (5200 or whatever) then have a few models in the series with different options (more memory, larger hard drive, faster CD player, etc) but the base is the same. I just did a search on their support website for the Aspire 5200 or Aspire 5233. I looked at the 5100 and 5700 series just to see what they were like becuase a lot of the time the designs between models are close. In those series, one has a modem.sound/fax card, the other has a modem on the motherboard. If you don’t have any free slots on the PC, your only alternative is an external modem. I probably wouldn’t start pull out boards to see what happens though. Well I would but you probably shouldn’t :slight_smile: Sorry I don’t have any better news for you on this.
-Jim

19

Jim,

Thanks again for your efforts.

I finally found the specs for the PC here:

http://www.acersupport.com/desktop/aspire/html/v55la2c_specs.html

After reading the general notes, scroll down to the fourth specific model configuration Part Number 91.AB610.D03, that’s the PC that I have, 233 chip, 33.6 modem and all.

Turns out that even though the tag on the PC reads “Model Number: 5233LR” They use the “Extension Number” which is listed on the next line tag as the model number, and that’s 1822. However I used the the part number and searched for that in order to figure that out… Sheesh, why can’t a model number simply be a model number???

Anyway, anyone have thoughts after looking at the specs?

I now get the impression from what I’m seeing that I might be okay to go ahead and make the swap after all, but then I don’t really know jack about PC’s so…

Loren

20

Additional info and resources here apparently - haven’t yet checked them out…but will shortly…

http://www.acersupport.com/desktop/aspire/html/v55la2c.html

Loren