Modem Difficulties 1

[zepper]

OS=Win 98SE.
Duron 1200 system.

I just got a new modem (Cendyne v.92 external RS-232 - yeah, I know the company just went Toes Up, but for about $20., what the hey!). It installed easily, but often would not be able to dial out getting an "Unable to access modem, make sure it's connected, turned on, etc." It seems I had to reinstall the modem in order to get it to dial.
. Using Diagnostics in Control Panel > Modems, I would get "Port already Open" errors.
. Something clicked in my head - ghosts in the machine! So I rebooted into Safe Mode, looked at the Dev Mgr, and sure enough I had lots of ghost devices. So I removed the duplicates - the ghosts are usually from the top of the list down, rebooted and all is fine now.
. If anyone knows how these ghost devices are propagated, I would be interested in finding out. I know the symptoms and what to do about it, but not the cause. And does any of the newer versions of Win have the same problem? Thanks.
.bh.

 

[Grenage]

Ghosts?

 

[zepper]

Yeah, that's what they are called, ghost devices. When I looked in DevMgr under Safe Mode, I had 2 COM1: ports, 2 LPT1: ports, 2 keyboards, 2 floppy drives, etc. - none of which appears in DevMgr while in normal mode, only in Safe Mode, thus called ghost devices. Seems to happen quite often with Win9x. I was wondering how it happens and whether Win2k and/or WinXP has the same problem.
.bh.

 

[Grenage]

Sorry I can't comment, I've never seen that occur on any OS personally.

 

[Ronin999]

Happens quite often on the Win9x series but have only noticed it less than a handful of times on WinXP. Haven't noticed it on Win2K either but I have less axperience with it so can't make a judgement on it.

 

[franklin97355]

Win9x checks for new hardware when it starts and sometimes it gets confused and will install everything (or just some things) again. In regular you just get to see what is active but in safe mode since drivers aren't installed you get to see it all. If you've changed a piece of hardware you will likely see the old hardware since the drivers are still on the computer. If you're feeling lucky you can go into safe mode and remove all the devices and when you reboot windows will find the stuff that is really there. BUT!! make sure you have all the drivers for the hardware you still have 'cause windows will ask for it. We ghost computers here at the school district and when the HD first boots after ghosting it will discover all new hardware unless the hardware is exactly the same in both computers.

 

[Grenage]

Thanks for the explanation Franklin

 

[edfair]

And if you are really, really brave you can go into the registry and delete the hkey,local machine, enum folder and get it to redetect everything in 3 or 4 reboots. But like franklin says, you better have hardware drivers available.

Not for the faint of heart or those who are afraid of jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.