My computer will disconnect from the internet, then I have to shut down and restart to get back on....when the 'Reconnect?' window pops up and I click 'Yes', no sound comes out for dial up, and it just keeps dialing, it never connects.

Plus, since my husband hooked up the printer and the scanner, I get this error message at odd times....the whole screen goes blue, and it says there was a system error and press any key to continue.

If there is anything else I can tell you to help you help me, ask away, PLEASE!!! Also, if I disable these at start-up, since I don't need them running the whole time, would it solve some of this?

Thanx to you both, for any help at all....I'm sorry I suck at this, guys. :(

If Shakey or aaron won´t be quicker, I will reply to your cry for help later today...sorry hon, but I have to run for school in a few minutes... :(

That's OK, wave! I can wait! School is the important thing. :) I can get online and everything, so no biggie, it's just annoying! :) I went ahead and shut down the printer and the scanner in startup...I'm waiting to see what happens next...**crosses fingers**

Originally posted by ValJ
[B]My computer will disconnect from the internet, then I have to shut down and restart to get back on....when the 'Reconnect?' window pops up and I click 'Yes', no sound comes out for dial up, and it just keeps dialing, it never connects.



Now, I am no Shakey or Wave but this seems like a phone line problem?? Maybe the cord is bad or not making a good connection? Than again, what do I know about computers??:goofy:

You are lucky, Val...on Fridays, school ends at 12.15 a.m. ;)

Okay, disabling the scanner and/or printer from start-up is a very good idea. In System Settings, you can check in the System folder under the Hardware Manager if the devices are correctly installed and recognized. If not, either a question mark or an exclamation point is displayed at the respective device.
If the problems still occurs, you may want to deinstall the printer and scanner completely from your system (Start > Settings > System Settings > Hardware).
Then, reinstall only one device first (I recommend to start with the printer, since you are probably using it primarily before the scanner) and check if your system is now running without crashes. Continue with the other device. If the system is now behaving faulty again, deinstall the devices again.

Now check the internet for any driver updates (of course, you can do it before you go through the whole process ;)). Reinstall the devices again, one after another, and use the new drivers.
Read the directions of the manufacturers about the updates (if available).

The installation of the printer and scanner drivers have probably botched up the modem driver - proceed the same way as you have done with the printer/scanner.

I hope that you can manage to get you PC under control again with these advices. ;)

Well I had a nice long reply typed and Explorer crashed on me. Explorer REALLY pisses me off. :1pissed:

I will make this much shorter.

I would check for updated drivers for your scanner and printer. If you are consistently getting blue screens with it, either Windows is screwed (what a surprise) or your drivers are buggy or possibly conflicting, so I would definitely check into that.

As for your modem, it really comes down to a few things.

Cheap quality phone lines, cheap modems, or possibly drivers. Most sub $30 modems are cheap quality. The majority of modems under $40 are winmodems, or software driven. They will only work under windows so you are at the mercy of well written drivers and possibly a cheap chipset.

I bought a Best Data $30 internal modem with a Conexant (Rockwell) chipset for my grandparents. Personally it isn't anything I would use, but for them, it was fine. I wasn't concerned with the Best Data as much as Conexant. I have used Rockwell for over 15 years and they rock! Even though hers is a winmodem, it has done well for her. I recently bought my mom a US Robotics/3com modem for the same price. Had a 3com chip on it (which are pretty good), and even though its a winmodem, it has a controller on it, which MOST winmodems don't.

The reason I mention this is because, unlike a hardware driven modem (one that DOESN'T rely on windows), you are at the mercy of those who wrote the drivers. If the drivers suck, you are going to have connectivity problems. Trust me on this one.

Also, equally important is the phone line. If the phone lines are poor quality, you will often get disconnected. They don't have to be perfect, but old/low grade phone lines (line what runs outside of your home) makes a big difference.

Ultimately, your modem type and the phone line is all that makes a difference, nothing else in your machine. If you have a winmodem that does not have a controller (MOST don't), then you need a FAST machine because ALL of the calculations, compression, error correction, etc are done by your computer, not the modem, and that takes a lot of power. I don't mean you need a Cray Supercomputer, but a Pentium 133 probably isn't enough.

Ok so this wasn't short... sue me.... :)

As to the printer/scanner, I would say that it certainly sounds like a driver issue. Probably one of the drivers did not install correctly or has become corrupt. Go to the manufacturers web site and download the newest one. Which is not going to be easy if you cannot resolve the modem issue...

Now for the modem issue. I would also try to get the latest driver for that also. If though, you cannot stay connected long enough to download it, you can always try to re-install the one that came with your modem. Again, it may just be a matter of file corruption. Barring that, you can try to re-install your network protocols (unlikely that they have become corrupt, but possible with Windows). You can find a guide on doing this here - Rebuild network protocols. (http://www.freenetname.co.uk/support/docs/fnn049.shtm)

Let us know if any of this helped or not.

OK, folks, here goes...since I disabled both at startup, I haven't had a problem. I just have to click "File" and "Print" instead of the icon. As I have nothing I want to scan at the moment, this isn't an issue. :)

I am not having a modem problem, I don't think, because I haven't had a problem connecting or staying connected since I disabled those. :) Oh, and I do have a software modem. If there are any updates for it, I've installed them, because I have that reminder thingie turned on. :lol: Sorry to use technichal terms like 'thingie' on y'all. :lol:

Since most of the problems started when my husband hooked up the printer, I'm going to try to reinstall it myself. Since my scanner works with my printer, and I installed it myself, I'm going to reinstall it myself, also. :lol:

I will look into the driver updates before I reinstall either, just to have what's necessary.

Thanx so much for all the help and info, you guys!! :* I'll try to get all this done this weekend, and let you know if I have any more problems! :)

You are welcome. Glad to see that things are working out. :)