Inspiron 2500 modem - no dial tone

[danmaday]

In the spirit of the holidays I offered to assist my friend with a problem with his Inspiron 2500 notebook. The problem is that his modem keeps getting a no dial tone error with its internal ActionTech modem.

I downloaded new drivers and diagnostics. The modem loaded as an LT win modem. The dignostics could not find a phone line connection.

I called Dell and found that his system was under maintenance so I asked Dell for a new modem. They sent me one. I installed it. Still no dial tone.

I figured it has a faulty connection between the modem card which has a connector to the external RJ11 phone jack so I sent the system to Dell. Dell sent it back saying that they updated the BIOS and put in a new modem. Still no dial tone.

I called Dell and asked if they tested the new modem. Dell said that their testing includes dialing out.

When I sent the system to Dell I removed the hard drive. This is the normal procedure. So when Dell tested they tested with their own hard drive containing who knows what software.

I successfully connected an old Sportster 28.8 modem to the com port and connected at 24k, I successfully connected an old XIRCOM 56k modem and connected at 14.4k.

I moved the laptop to different phone jacks. Still no dial tone.

I am puzzled. Maybe I am getting too old for this work.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks and Happy Holidays.

[computer wizard]

In the UK this can happen when one uses a lead with connections made one-to-one. The correct lead has cross-over connections. Some old modems require the first type but nowadays all modems sold in the UK use the x-over type. I'm not familiar with US phone sockets so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree?

[danmaday]

The same phone jack worked for the Sportser and Xircom modems.

I think the problem is in the Notebook but can I accuse Dell of lying when they said they tested the modem? It sure seems like they didn't.

[computer wizard]

have you run the diagnostic check to see if the modem responds normally?
In XP double click modem in device manager, select diagnostics and query

[danmaday]

I ran all of the modem diagnostics from the adanced tab on the Phone & Modem portion of the control panel and all of tests worked fine.

[computer wizard]

There are definitely two types of cable in the UK.
With a magnifier you can see how the coloured wires are connected. One type connects the outer pins at one end to the inner pins on the other. The second has the wires connected pin1 to pin1 etc. Can you try another cable?
Of course you can get lightning damage. Sometimes you can see the soot around the input devices.
But then again maybe the modem is just broke :-(

[danmaday]

I will look for bent pins. But what truly puzzles me is how did Dell get it to work?

[computer wizard]

You'd be most unlikely to get 2 bad modems. If Dell used their own S/W and their own driver then one possibility is your dial-up settings are wrong. Another is a wrong driver.
My brother in law had 2 problems. One was no dial tone. We changed his modem lead and we got dial tone.
The second problem was when the modem dialled out.
The thing was set up for the US. Unfortunately this resulted in the UK dial code being fronted by an international dial up code.
The resultant freephone number for the UK added to the number to get to the UK from the US, rung from the UK gave the dial code for the Hanoi speaking clock. We only found out by lifting a phone connected to the line and listening to the operator...Weird!
Check that all the boxes are OK including no special dial up code is specified to get to the public network etc...
Pop it round to my workshop next time you're in the New Forest... not too far... it's near Bournemouth in Dorset :-)

[danmaday]

I picked up the receiver on a phone after I plugged in the phone cord into the internal modem and I heard no dial tone but rather a loud buzzing just like you get when you test the speaker. I was not dialing or even using the modem. When I plugged the phone cord into the Xircom I heard the dial tone.

I am ready to toss in the towel and yell at Dell again.

Thanks eveyone for assisting in what, I'm afraid, is a lost cause.

[computer wizard]

I know this is a silly question. You haven't plugged your phone cord into the LAN socket by mistake?