Faxing from a PC

[Jonzjob]

At the moment I am about to put our PC into orbit.

I am trying to send a couple of faxes and each time I get to the stage of the 'wizard' that says 'finnish', the modem starts to make the noises of dialing and the screen goes dark and the stupid machine reboots! Receiving them is not a problem.

I have been trying to send these faxes by doing a copy/fax from my scanner. First I thought it was a problem with the scanner so I un-installed it and re-loaded it. Of course it didn't re-load clean, it took 3 attempts... No change, still reboots as soon as the modem dials. I then tried to 'scan to application', copy to 'word', this produced 2 pages for each document. One of the pages was blank. So I got round this by doing a copy to M/soft Publisher and doing a print to fax. It worked and I had managed to get one of the documents away, once. Then it went back to the trick of rebooting when the modem dialed....

I have lost count of the number of times it has rebooted itself. I have also lost count of the modem reloads too.

PLEASE has anyone any ideas as to what is causing this, I have gone completely grey!!!

I am on Win 2000 pro, also on ADSL. The one time I managed to get a fax away I had just reloaded the modem and I realised that it was set to U.K. standard. This was set to France and I thought I'd cracked it. Bill Gates is an evil budgerigar inhe?

John.

[WebProQuo<P>NDC<P><P><a target=_blank href="http:www.WebProQuo.com" target=_blank>http:www.WebProQuo.com<A><P><P><a target=_blank href="http:www.finddotcoms.com" target=_blank>http:www.FindDotComs.com<A><P><P> <P>]

Hi John

The bit that stands out to me is "also on ADSL" - it sounds to me like there's a clash with whatever device you use for this connection. Without any more detail it's difficult to give you any ideas but that's where I'd start looking.

[Nick Trollope]

I presume that you get a very brief blue screen with some white witing on it, just before the PC reboots. I doubt if you can read it!

Turn error logging on (refer to the W2000 help - error, logging) & see what the message says.

What sort of modem are you using? Internal, external, software?

[suein56]

Please forgive me if I am on quite the wrong path but I was told by s.o. who knows about these things that the one thing that many people who are lucky enough to get onto Broadband do is forget to disable the dial-up modem which, of course, is no longer needed to dial up.

Sue

[Jonzjob]

As Victor Meldrew would say "I don't belive it!!!"

I have just spent about 1/2 hour keying in a reply on this idiot box to see it go down the drain as soon as I tried to post it!

I will start again, if I can remember it all?

Thank you for your help with this. Nick I have looked at the error logging, DR Watson. It turns on as soon as an error occurs and ther are no records since about 13.35 and ther have been numerous errors since then. When the failure occurs the screen goes from the normal fax wizard 'Finish' window, or the fax window just after that, to black (powered off) screen and then reboots. No warning...

I have an internal 56k voice/fax/data modem in the bottom slot on the mother board. It's the lowest speed and priority. The ADSL 'modem' is plugged into a USB hub and via an ADSL filter it's the first plug in the wall. The 56k modem and house phone are plugged into the correct side of the filter.

The 56k modem is needed to send/rec faxes because the ADSL modem won't dial, or if it does I would love to know how please. This configuration was given to me by the Freeserve help desk in the U.K. and worked well the few times it was used. The same config as here so I don't think ther is a clash? It isn't used in the normal internet conection Sue,it's disabled for that.

It is only when the 56k modem starts to dial out that the system reboots and not at exactly the same time.

I am a retired IBM hardware service engineer who worked on mainframes for 20 years and I would rather spend a week on a pig of a problem than 5 minutes on one of these baskets. They are as user friendly as a cornered rat!

John, tierd, frustrated and peadoff

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]As Victor Meldrew would say "I don't belive it!!!" I have just spent about 1/2 hour keying in a reply on this idiot box to see it go down the drain as soon as I tried to post it! I will start again,...[/quote]

Hope you got some sleep!

There is nothing wrong with your config; When I had ADSL, it is exactly as I used (I did have an RS232 modem, however. Not that it should matter).

The obvious thing is to unplug the USB ADSL modem and try again. I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but elimination is the best way to find this sort of fault.

Search for new drivers for your modem (www.driverguide.com) - using the chip numbers often finds better drivers. Can you borrow and external fax modem (they only cost £40 to buy..) and try that (after de-installing you internal modem). Your modem is a genuine hardware modem (with a modem chipset on it) and NOT a software modem (which are cheap and often don't work), isn't it?

What fax s/w are you using (windoze fax s/w is pants). I have always used Winfax (V10 at the moment) without problems.

ADSL modems don't dial, they are not modems per se, they are adaptors for broadband TCP/IP to USB. They can't be used to "connect" in the modem sense, 'cos they don't need to.

 

[Jonzjob]

Hi Nick,  I managed to get to bed just after I posted the last one and got a good knights (?) sleep.

I've had a look at the web site for the drivers, very comprehensive and worth a look. There is a driver for my modem and I have now down loaded it. Down load, yes  --  update the driver I have now, no not a chance. When I try to upgrade or dump the modem driver and try to reload the new one it asks for the modem CD to be put in drive 'D' (1st CD drive) and I can't get it to do any different. The driver I down loaded is in a file on my hard disk and when I give that as the driver address it beeps at me and askes for the CD. PCs must be femail and as I have always been trained to give in to femails I loaded it from there.

As it had the original driver I decided to try to use the fax with the ADSL disconected from the USB hub. So that was disconnected.

Now ---  I don't have anyone to send a b****y fax to!!! So I tried to send it to myself, I know that it will find an engaged line, but it reboots the PC before it has finished dialing. So this I tried and it worked, time after time. Then I reconected the USB conector and found that it wouldn't reload the ADSL driver! So I had to reboot the thing again. At this stage I opened the french doors to give me a clear throw!

The ADSL 'modem' came back with it's driver when the reboot had finished. I then tried to fax myself again and the 56k modem did not even try to dial, said on the fax window that it was dialing and then after about 30 seconds said "no answer" and went to the idle state. I unplugged the ADSL line from the USB hub and it remained the same, no dialing noise saying it was dialing and then saying "no answer". This budgerigar is definately femail!

So for the moment I have given up, it has beaten me, but I will return and beat it. I have still got the other modem to try, so when I have a little time again I will fit it and see if there is any difference...

By the way did you know know that in Aborigional budgerigar means edible?   Not-a-lot-a-people-know-that...

John.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]Hi Nick, I managed to get to bed just after I posted the last one and got a good knights (?) sleep. I've had a look at the web site for the drivers, very comprehensive and worth a look. There is a d...[/quote]

When I try to upgrade or dump the modem driver and try to reload the new one it asks for the modem CD to be put in drive 'D' (1st CD drive) and I can't get it to do any different. The driver I down loaded is in a file on my hard disk and when I give that as the driver address it beeps at me and askes for the CD.

Don't give up!

The screen that asks for the CD drive (as your quote) has a "browse" button on it. This will give you access to the driver on your HDD. 

Failing that, use add/remove hardware from control panel and use the troubleshooter - it should be obvious if you get the PC to do a hardware search....

 

[Jonzjob]

Hi Nick,

I now realise why I love PCs so much? I decided to reload the driver from the CD again and it now dials!!!!! So I will leave it till we need it next and see if it still likes me?

What it needs is cleaning and drying. To clean use one gallon of petrol and dry with a match. Do this outside and I will guarantee it will never give you trouble again.

Thank you for all your help and time, take care,

Smug John...

[Ivan Trotman]

Hi - I wondered whether your pc allows you to connect using ADSL and "Dial-up" Modem at the same time? I have dispensed with pc-based faxes and if I need to send something use a web-based fax such as http://www.gohot.co.uk/fax.html 

Hope that helps

[Jonzjob]

Ho Trubshaw,

Welcome and thank you for the info. I have had a look at the site, but the instructions don't work... How reliable is the web based fax, because the best part of the dial up fax is that it's secure, unless your phone is tapped. If the web based one uses the web the same as e-mails then surely it can be hacked like any other web info that's not on an encripted line?

As far as the configuration of ADSL and dial up modem are concerned they are OK together. The dial up uses the voice part of the broadband and the ADSL the ADSL part. Just means that if anyone wants to use the phone they can't till the fax line drops..

John.

[Ivan Trotman]

Hi

Security on web-based programmes is a matter for your own risk assessment and I cannot speak for this organisation. I guess it depends on the sensitivity of the information you are sending - I have used it for general stuff and it has worked fine.