computer will not boot with old modem card removed??

[cal_tony]

I hava an old dial up pci modem connected to my computer. I haven't used it in at least 5 years because I have a satellite connection. The modem is plugged in but not connected to anything. Yesterday, while doiing some work on my ESata card I noticed it was still there. So I pulled it.

Now my computer has a problem. When it gets to booting up my personal preferences. It just freezes. If I hit the reset button it may or may not then boot up. So, I replugged it and its all okay now. I'm using XP and I thought the modem was plug and play and removing it wouldn't be a problem. When I removed it there was no notice at startup that it was missing and when reconnected there was no notice of reconnection.

Any thoughts?

Tony

[DarrellS]

Maybe try removing the drivers first.

[handyguy]

Bios of some computers remember what you put in it so it assumes those things are still in your computer & expects them to be in there when you turn it on. You can sometimes flush the bios & have it redetect stuff.

[AlanHK]

So, I replugged it and its all okay now. I'm using XP and I thought the modem was plug and play and removing it wouldn't be a problem

Go to Device Manager, find the modem, right-click, Uninstall.
Then shut down, take out the card, reboot.

[cal_tony]

Thanks for the inputs.
The device mgr shows the modem as gone when it is removed and reinstalled when it was put back in. So this time I uninstalled the device in the device mgr but I haven't removed it since. When it was removed I ran CCleaner in file and registry mode to clean up it's traces but that didn't seem to help. I might just stick another card in the slot and see what happens.

Tony

[DarrellS]

If the above suggestions did not help...

This is from Microsoft...

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/mode_re....mspx?mfr=true

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

1. Open Phone and Modem Options in Control Panel.
2. On the Modems tab, click the modem you want to delete.
3. Click Remove.

Note
•To open Phone and Modem Options, click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Network and Internet Connections. Under See Also, click Phone and Modem Options.

You could always do a Windows repair if all else fails. I've never seen this problem before and I've removed both an HP and a US Robotics dial-up modem.

[cal_tony]

Again, thanks for the help.
So far I've tried all the suggestions and not 100% success yet. About 50% of the time it boots up. Other 50% it reaches the Microsoft tones and on the last tone it freezes. If I then hit the resent button, it boots up. So it's not a big problem. If all else fails, I'll just stick the modem back in. With all the changes, I hope it's not too late for that.

Tony

[Nelson37]

Did you try enough boots with the modem removed to determine if the 50% boot was at all related?

No way a modem should have this effect. Or any other add-on card, for that matter.

My guess would be that the modem is not at all involved in your problem. Maybe a board flex issue.

[cal_tony]

Nelson37, maybe so.
But when I did put the card back in early this morning I booted it up half dozen time and no problems so I don't think it's a board problem because except for the bootup problem everything else works just fine.

I tried 8 boots half were successful. With the other half I just hit the reset button and it booted up without fail.

Now let me get to something that borders on superstitious behavior. On another half doz boots when the installing preferences screen popped up I would just move the mouse in circles and..... no tones, just a boot up every time. Seems like whatever it's looking for on a bootup can be compensated for by a reset or a distraction with the mouse. It's bizarre

Another thing I thought of is that this old modem was of the fax/ modem variety and even though the fax program is not in the startup folder and hasn't been used in 5 years, I never bothered to uninstall it. Maybe it has a registry call to find the modem.

Tony

[AlanHK]

when I did put the card back in early this morning I booted it up half dozen time and no problems so I don't think it's a board problem because except for the bootup problem everything else works just fine.

It's definitely a Windows config problem, not a hardware/BIOS problem.
You wouldn't get near to booting Windows if it was hardware.

Another thing I thought of is that this old modem was of the fax/ modem variety and even though the fax program is not in the startup folder and hasn't been used in 5 years, I never bothered to uninstall it. Maybe it has a registry call to find the modem.

Something is looking for the modem.

Get a startup manager and it will tell you all the programs that start automatically with Windows. These can be hooked into various places in the Registry, not just the Startup folder.
This is a good, free one: Startup Control Panel

Many of them can be deactivated safely, too many program authors arrogantly install their programs to run every boot, to check for updates, etc.

If you can't boot normally, boot in Safe Mode, most of these should be bypassed so you can clean it up before booting normally.

[cal_tony]

AlanHK.
No I don't have a bootup problem, at least not one where I can't boot up at all as I'm on the computer that we're discussing now. As I mentioned above I can boot it up by hitting the reset or by moving the mouse around at the last stages of boot but somethings looking for that modem. I'm going to un-install whatever fax programs were using that modem and that might cure it. You are probably right about some of these old programs looking for that modem and as long as the modem was still in the slot they remained dormant.

My last install of window xp on that computer was 10 years ago so there might be a lot of old stuff looking for the modem.

Tony

[Nelson37]

You describe several boot scenarios, however it is not clear whether the modem is installed or not. You appear to have described a partial boot scenario wherein the reset button solves the issue, this is with the modem re-installed? If so, I am not seeing a difference between Modem-in and Modem-out situations.

As suggested, try safe mode. Also regedit for any fax programs running at startup, IIRC Winfax could cause a similar behavior.

However, software that loads at boottime loads EVERY boot, not 50% of them. The PC flaking at boot, 5 out of 10, sounds more like failing hardware. Such as you would find on an old PC that has been unused for several years.

I just see this a lot, where a change is made, then a defect observed, and an automatic assumption is made that the change has caused the defect behavior. When often the change had absolutely nothing to do with the defect, they just happened to occur at around the same time.

[cal_tony]

I put the modem back in problem... gone. Well, at least 10 successful boots without a problem. Sorry about not being clear about it. I posted my problem because it did seem strange. The modem had been plugged into the slot but not connected for years without boot problems. It was only when I removed it that it booted sometimes and not other times.

I spent some time searching for fax software that might be causing the problem but still no luck.

I guess I'll just leave it in.

Tony

[handyguy]

Some computers won't accept an empty first PCI slot.

[victoriabears]

Unplug the power to the computer overnight, or taking out the motherboard battery for , say, an hour, resets the bios, so take out the modem, do the aforementioned and i hope that works for you.

[handyguy]

Unplug the power to the computer overnight, or taking out the motherboard battery for , say, an hour, resets the bios, so take out the modem, do the aforementioned and i hope that works for you.

Yeah but it's easier to do it in your bios, it should have a setting to clear NVram.