ISDN Modem Problem

[Darric]

Apologies for length. Those with attention deficit disorder can jump down to the asterisk...

Let me tell my story real quick: I got ISDN in March (2005). I bought a Duxbury PCI 128k isdn modem. When connected to the internet, I would get blue screens of death occasionally (well... my PC's configured to automatically reset). I eventually narrowed it down (by the save dumps) to the modem driver. After unsuccessfully trying to find new drivers, I bought a modem second-hand from a friend.

This one was a Dynalink TAS-106H. However, the most recent drivers for this modem aren't all that recent (I guess I should have checked that first). In any case, I still get BSOD's/resets when ever I use bit torrent, and they still trace to my modem driver files (wanlink.sys and ndiswan.sys). I figured that maybe it was just something else in my PC, or perhaps my windows install. But interestingly, I tried using the modem in my brother's PC and it too started resetting. (If anyone's interested, the Windows bugchecks vary between C2 and 35)

* My query is twofold:

a) Does anyone have any idea what the hell's going on?
b) Windows XP (SP2) users, what ISDN modems are you using? Is anyone using a Duxbury/Dynalink modem? Any particular recommendations for a modem, and where I might buy one?

I'm at the point where the money I'm wasting from my PC resetting (breaking my infinitcall) justifies the expenditure of buying YET ANOTHER modem, so any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Darric

 

[nGAGEd55]

b) Windows XP (SP2) users, what ISDN modems are you using? Is anyone using a Duxbury/Dynalink modem?

Before i got ADSL I used a (Very Old) Dynalink ISDN modem with WinXP SP2 and i think i always used the old drivers which came on the disk, they never gave me any problems. Im not sure whether WinXP has generic ISDN modem drivers, but if it does, try that. Also when you install a driver you can search the Windows Update site for newer drivers, maybe you should try that.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

I also have the same issues with mine, so I'll have to assume that you uses USB.

Quite recently I was logged in to do maintenance on a client's site with an USB analog modem, the line dropped and the PC bluescreened.

Which makes me wonder whether it is because of the modem running on USB and not on serial...

Before i got ADSL I used a (Very Old) Dynalink ISDN modem with WinXP SP2 and i think i always used the old drivers which came on the disk, they never gave me any problems.

Was this a serial modem? From your description it seems like it is one.

 

[Scott]

i used an internal ISDN modem and never had probs

 

[Darric]

Before i got ADSL I used a (Very Old) Dynalink ISDN modem with WinXP SP2 and i think i always used the old drivers which came on the disk, they never gave me any problems.

Unfortunately I bought mine secondhand, and the guy was regrettably unable to give me a driver disk. =(

Im not sure whether WinXP has generic ISDN modem drivers, but if it does, try that.

I'll give that a go, thanks.

Also when you install a driver you can search the Windows Update site for newer drivers, maybe you should try that.

It would appear there's a flaw in the logic here, connecting to the internet to get drivers to connect to the internet!

And Unbeliever, both modems I've bought have been internal PCI ones. =\

 

[nGAGEd55]

Was this a serial modem? From your description it seems like it is one.

Yep it was

It would appear there's a flaw in the logic here, connecting to the internet to get drivers to connect to the internet!

ya, but you could use normal dial-up or GPRS or something like that to connect, cant you?

 

[Lord Anubis]

I have a Microcom internal modem used for the last two years. (no blue screens). Prior to that I used to use a Telkom Tiny USB external modem (puhlenty blue screens). The main reason I found when I was having problems was that there was a buffer overflow (RAM/CPU/HDD conflict) that would occur when especially high volumes of data was being transferred (e.g. p2p). There was also no new drivers available.

I suggest that you go for an internal modem.

One other thing that I also found was that using zonealarm firewall with p2p also caused bluescreens.

The last alternative is off course to dump isdn.It is uncapped and unshaped but can be a real pain.

Just goes to show what we have to do with this lousy technology to come by doesn't it. I currently have isdn which I only use for downloading over lan and two other wireless adsl connections for voip ,browsing, gaming and one fixed line adsl for work. Costs a furtune and it really drives me crazy when infinitcall drops or a pc crashes.

If your pc continues to crash (BSOD) and a new modem doesn't resolve this I would suggest this forum before buying a new one (new pc)

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp

Just bear in mind that the causes for blue screens are so varied (don't always believe the dumprep)and can be as a result of :

Poor power supply (too little for all the peripherals your using, even one extra cooling fan can push it over the limit)

Bad Ram

Faulty HDD

MB/CPU

Corrupt Windows/software

Conflicting devices (graphics cards/ sound cards)

Virii/spyware/malware etc.

There are a lot of free utilities on the web that you can use to do diagnostics but the annoyances forum may be able to at least point out where the problem may be.

One last thing you can try is to remove devices one by one till you find the fault. As I said the windows dumprep is notoriously flawed and in most cases I have had in the past with blue screens that occured while I was online the dumprep also referred to the modem drivers but it never was the cause of the problem

 

[Scott]

he must be able to...BTW you can use your ISDN dialup account for 56k dialups

 

[Darric]

Unfortunately I don't have a 56K modem, but I suppose I could borrow one or something. I'm sure I could find a way to temporarily connect to the net whilst I install the ISDN modem in any case.

As for the whole issue, I'm pretty sure it's the modem that's causing the problems. Quite simply, it never happened before I got the modem, it only happens when I'm online, and when I moved the modem to my brother's PC, then it too started BSOD'ing.

BTech: What you mentioned about buffer overflowing seems to be precisely the problem I'm having, it only happens during intense data flow, i.e as I mentioned when using bit torrent. It used to happen occasionally once I logged into World of Warcraft, but I got different drivers (but still very old) and now it seems to only happen with torrenting.

I guess I'll try installing winXP default drivers as soon as I get back - going away for a week...

 

[nuyork]

I know this is an extremely old post, but just wanted to say I'm having the same problem or restarting/BSOD. (I did a search on Google and came up with this thread).

Darric: did you ever find a fix for your problem?

I recently bought a new PC, and transfered the PCI ISDN modem from my old computer to my new one. Unforunately when I installed the drivers, they would completely hang my PC, have to press the reset button to restart. Try both the drivers that came with the CD (from 2000) and the last updated drivers for the card (from 2001), both didn't work, and both were unsigned Microsoft drivers. Strangely enough, on my old PC, the 2000 drivers would hang my PC, but the 2001 drivers worked perfectly.

So I decided to buy a new USB ISDN modem (from DigitalPlanet). The Tiny Billion one (the ones Hellkom sell). Last time the drivers were updated - 2003. These ones restart my PC and I check the error on the BSOD and figired out it's the driver for the USB ISDN modem. (I'm trying to see if I can swap the USB modem for another modem from DigitalPlanet).

I know ISDN is an old technology, but now I'm trying to find a good ISDN modem where the manufactures have updated the drivers recently and are Microsoft certified.

Can anyone give me suggestions?

Thanks,
:L:

 

[useless]

this is a weird post, i have a duxbury 128k USB modem and have not experienced the issues reported here.

the latest drivers i could find from the duxbury website are old but they do work. it also installed an application which shows how many lines are connected and their status, this app sits by the clock on the toolbar.

i run Win XP SP2 and now have moved the modem to a Win 2000 server to use ICS for my gaming PC and Xbox 360.

could it be that some other drivers have overwritten the relevant .SYS files? whats the date stamp on them btw?

 

[Darric]

Was searching for info on a different topic when I saw a fairly recent reply to this thread. So thought I'd pop in.

Quick update: For the last 6 months, I've been running the net through my flatmate's PC. His computer seems to handle it (somewhat) better, but still BSODs on occasion (say, once every 2 weeks). When he went home for the June vacation, I was forced to move the modem back to my PC and discovered something interesting:

I was still getting BSODs. But one week I decided to clear up a load of stuff I had on my HDD by burning/deleting most of it. So from typically having between 6 and 10 gigs free, I jumped up to 15 gigs free space. Believe it or not, in the 3 weeks following that, I didn't have a single reset: something unprecedented for even a single weekend.

I had my first reset last weekend. The possible reason? I installed HL2:Episode 1 earlier that week.

I know it sounds positively bizarre, but I honestly believe these resets are related in some way I don't know how to my HDD space. Which leads me to believe it's some sort of Virtual memory problem.

Also, to whoever mentioned having a Duxbury USB modem and no problems, my issue is with a PCI modem. So I dunno. It's clearly a temperamental situation, so I wouldn't be surprised if subtle variances lead to drastic differences.

 

[nuyork]

I'm sorted...

Just to update everyone on my ISDN story.

I sent back my Billion Tiny USB modem to DigitalPlanet and they refunded me the money - how nice of them.

And I got myself a EICON DIVA Pro 2.0 PCI 128K ISDN Internal modem. WHAT A GOD SENT!! This modem is perfect. I have had not one problem with it. I've had it 4 weeks now. Not one single hang up. No restarts. Nothing. Dials up, and stays connected until I disconnect. The drivers are from 2004

A funny story behind this is I was asking around locally for pricing on the EICON DIVA Pro 2.0 PCI 128K ISDN Internal modem, not many people stocked it. And the quotes I was getting were between R 800 and R 1000. Which I thought was WAY OVERPRICED for such old technology. So I thought, let me do a search on eBay. Luckily I managed to find the ONLY one available. I took the chance and bid on it.

I won the bid for a pound - £1. And then I paid £9 for shipping to SA. So in the end I paid roughly R120. Comparing that to the ridiculous quotes I got here.

Well anyway, I'd just thought I'd let everyone know. I think that it had to do with chipset or quality of the product. I dunno, I could be wrong. But the previous ISDN PCI card didn't work, but those 2001 drivers were not MS certified. And the Billion USB ISDN modem, gave USB overflow errors. But this new EICON DIVA Pro 2.0 PCI 128K ISDN Internal modem is working perfectly.

:L:

 

[mh348]

if anyone needs an ISDN modem I have one available (Mecer USB). I only used it for a month since it worked out too expensive with approximately R220 telscum ISDN rental + for dialing and extra ISp costs (& R404 for installation), I switched back to dialup and I'm now using ADSL...

Did anyone here who might of had ISDN get to keep the "ISDn box" after cancelling the ISDN service?