Re: Fax, Cannot hear dial tone anymore

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The usual advice when a computer changes behavior suddenly is to ask what happened just before the change occurred. The second bit of advice is to check your computer for malware (both viruses and adware/spyware), although I haven't heard of any malware that resets volume on modem speakers.

Your settings for Maximum Port Speed and Dial Control are fine. Don't change them.

The following may not help at all, but if you are interested in doing a few experiments with your modem, you can try issuing commands directly to the modem (the following directions are from a Win95 MSKB article, but they should still work for HyperTerminal on WinXP). In step 5, agree to whatever settings are shown).

1. Start HyperTerminal (Hypertrm.exe).
2. Enter a name for the connection (for example, Test) in the Name box.
3. Click an icon for the connection in the Icon box, and then click OK.
4. In the Connect Using box, click Direct To Com X (where X is the port your modem is connected to) and then click OK.
5. Verify the settings on the Port Settings tab and then click OK.
6. On the File menu, click Properties. On the Settings tab, click ASCII Setup.
7. Click the Send Line Ends With Line Feeds and Echo Typed Characters Locally check boxes to select them.
8. Click OK, and then click OK. You can now type AT commands.
9. Quit HyperTerminal. When you are prompted "Save session <name>?" click Yes if you want to save the session so that you can use AT commands at another time.

Here are 3 tests for step 8:

Type ATDT and press <Enter>. You should hear a dial tone. You also should hear a dial tone if you click the telephone icon (Call) in the HyperTerminal toolbar. Hangup by clicking the disconnect icon.

Another test you can try is to dial your own telephone number. If your fax line telephone number is +44 020 7935-1234, for example, type
ATDT 79351234 and press <Enter>. You should hear the "line engaged" (busy) signal. If your voice telephone is on a different line than your fax line, you can try calling it. Your voice phone should ring and when you pick it up you should hear the modem data negotiation tones.

If you don't hear anything from the modem speakers with any of those tests, type ATDT &V and press <Enter>. This should display the current configuration of your modem. In among the list of letters and numbers, the bits that have to do with the modem's speakers are Ln and Mn (n is a number from 0 to 3). L is the speaker volume and M is the speaker control (as I posted before). Based on the settings you had made earlier, you should see L3 and M1. If Ln and/or Mn are different (e.g., you see L0 and M0), there is some other software on your computer that is reconfiguring your modem. You can temporarily reset Ln and Mn by typing ATDT L3 M3 <enter> and then repeat the first two tests above. However, if there is something resetting your modem, you'll have to do some clean boot troubleshooting to determine what it is: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434


SanjayUK wrote:
Hi Lem, Thanks for your advice. I tried it, but still no luck.
The Volume was already set to the 2nd highest setting. I Maxed it now.
Under "Advanced" tab, "Extra initialization commands" was blank. I added M1, pressed "ok" and rebooted my computer and tried to send a fax. Still no output to speakers!!

Under the "Modem" tab, beneath "Speaker Volume", "Maximum Port Speed" is set to 115200 and "Dial Control" is Unticked. Do you think this could have anything to do with it??

I have added various bits of software over the last few months, but non that should affect modem settings as far as I can recall.

But Thanks for the help Lem, I would never have thought of these possibilities.

Sanjay


"Lem" wrote:

Have you recently added or changed ANY software that uses the modem (fax or otherwise)? This may have altered some modem initialization commands. To reset the appropriate initialization commands --

Control Panel > Phone and Modem Options > Modems tab

Select your fax modem in the list (it's probably the only one there) and click "Properties"

Click the "Modem" tab. Check to see that the "Volume" slider has not been set to "off". Slide the control to the right to increase volume.

If the volume is already at max, then click the "Advanced" tab. If there is anything in the "Extra initialization commands" write it down (so that you can restore to this if later necessary). Then add the following: M1 (no space between any existing commands and this one). OK your way out. You probably will have to re-boot for this initialization sequence to be sent to the modem.

FYI:

Mn : (Speaker Control)
This command selects when the modem speaker will be on or off.

M0 : The speaker is always off.
M1 : Enables the speaker during call establishment, but off after the carrier is detected.
M2 : The speaker is always on.
M3 : Disables the speaker during the dialing period and receiving carrier, but on during answering.



--
Lem MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

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