Sean LeBlanc
December 7th 03, 12:25 AM
Hi,
Some time ago, I bought a computer on behalf of some folks I know.
This computer shipped with XP (Home edition, I think). It worked fine
for about six months, then started causing no end of grief. The grief
has been going on for almost a year now:
1. The first problem was that the Intel Pro/DSL modem stopped working.
They resorted to dial-up in the meantime, and I could never
uninstall/reinstall the driver for this. Sorry I don't have more
details, I just remember that neither worked no matter what I tried at
the time. I also remember the driver didn't meet XP standard testing
or whatever, but it was the only driver at the time. Qwest was little
help at the time, too. I think their tech support said something like
"I've seen it where people have to just reinstall XP". Well, for a
just a driver, that sounds ridiculous to me.
2. A short time later, the HD crashed. I was able to swap out the
drive, and reinstall. I hoped that I would be able to set the DSL
modem back up during this time, but no luck. Before the HD went out
completely, I had to run chkdsk from the recovery console a few times
due to a startup error. I forget the exact error number for this.
3. After I swapped out the drive, this error requiring a chkdsk was at
least a monthly occurrence. I don't know if people there are just
powering off the box or not, but when I'm there, I see them do a
shutdown.
4. The most recent message that happened was "Windows could not start
because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\sytem\config\system". I fixed this via recovery console by
copying the old system file in (at the recovery console). I saw a tip
about turning disk caching off in the HD device options. I did this,
just in case that's the cause of all these frequent start up errors.
Now the machine boots...but now I can't even get the dial-up modem to
work anymore. Here's what I know about the card:
a. It says Intel on it. I assume it's using their chipset.
b. On the back, there is this number: 82A15760.
c. On the front, there is this number across the top: AMI-2019F/2019C
P2019-3 CPIMP0P2019-03.
d. It's PCI.
e. When I try to get XP to install a driver, it reports it as this:
Intel HaM Data Fax Voice, but it wants a disk besides the XP disk, and
none was shipped with this computer that relates to the dial-up modem.
Where can I download this driver? Intel's site hasn't been much help,
and they claim they only make chipsets, not modems, so it might be
someone else. I was thinking maybe AMI, but I'm not sure about that,
either. I did find a site that allegedly has the driver, but it's
subscription based. Sorry, I think that's crazy to pay a subscription
to a site just for one lousy driver!
Is XP always this much trouble for people? Maybe it's the hardware -
this box is a no-name brand. I use W2K at work quite extensively (and
I've used NT since 1995), and I've never been this frustrated by any
Windows in the past, even crappy Win9x. I use mostly FreeBSD at home
these days, so I'm sort of out of the loop on XP.
Sorry some of the details on the earlier problems are so hazy, it's
been almost a year since these problems started.
TIA,
Sean LeBlanc -
Some time ago, I bought a computer on behalf of some folks I know.
This computer shipped with XP (Home edition, I think). It worked fine
for about six months, then started causing no end of grief. The grief
has been going on for almost a year now:
1. The first problem was that the Intel Pro/DSL modem stopped working.
They resorted to dial-up in the meantime, and I could never
uninstall/reinstall the driver for this. Sorry I don't have more
details, I just remember that neither worked no matter what I tried at
the time. I also remember the driver didn't meet XP standard testing
or whatever, but it was the only driver at the time. Qwest was little
help at the time, too. I think their tech support said something like
"I've seen it where people have to just reinstall XP". Well, for a
just a driver, that sounds ridiculous to me.
2. A short time later, the HD crashed. I was able to swap out the
drive, and reinstall. I hoped that I would be able to set the DSL
modem back up during this time, but no luck. Before the HD went out
completely, I had to run chkdsk from the recovery console a few times
due to a startup error. I forget the exact error number for this.
3. After I swapped out the drive, this error requiring a chkdsk was at
least a monthly occurrence. I don't know if people there are just
powering off the box or not, but when I'm there, I see them do a
shutdown.
4. The most recent message that happened was "Windows could not start
because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\sytem\config\system". I fixed this via recovery console by
copying the old system file in (at the recovery console). I saw a tip
about turning disk caching off in the HD device options. I did this,
just in case that's the cause of all these frequent start up errors.
Now the machine boots...but now I can't even get the dial-up modem to
work anymore. Here's what I know about the card:
a. It says Intel on it. I assume it's using their chipset.
b. On the back, there is this number: 82A15760.
c. On the front, there is this number across the top: AMI-2019F/2019C
P2019-3 CPIMP0P2019-03.
d. It's PCI.
e. When I try to get XP to install a driver, it reports it as this:
Intel HaM Data Fax Voice, but it wants a disk besides the XP disk, and
none was shipped with this computer that relates to the dial-up modem.
Where can I download this driver? Intel's site hasn't been much help,
and they claim they only make chipsets, not modems, so it might be
someone else. I was thinking maybe AMI, but I'm not sure about that,
either. I did find a site that allegedly has the driver, but it's
subscription based. Sorry, I think that's crazy to pay a subscription
to a site just for one lousy driver!
Is XP always this much trouble for people? Maybe it's the hardware -
this box is a no-name brand. I use W2K at work quite extensively (and
I've used NT since 1995), and I've never been this frustrated by any
Windows in the past, even crappy Win9x. I use mostly FreeBSD at home
these days, so I'm sort of out of the loop on XP.
Sorry some of the details on the earlier problems are so hazy, it's
been almost a year since these problems started.
TIA,
Sean LeBlanc -