Dell Inspirion 5100 laptop crashed :(

[Catchawave]

She's about 3 years old, and had a corrupt message on boot up this morning, reloaded Win XP home edition, but when I began reloading AOL 9 security edition,

"can't detect modem" message kept popping up and despite troubleshooting my telephone line and cords, kept getting the same error message.

Is it possible there's an internal problem with my dial-up modem ?

She's worked great all this time, and before I throw it in the trash, just hoping there's a last ditch effort I could try. Thanks :hi:

[landdaddy]

1. Did you

reformat the hard drive and then reload windows and all drivers?
In my experience AOL has caused many a PC problem but not sure that is the culprit in your case.
If you don't get it worked out I'd be happy to troubleshoot it for you. I'm right around the corner in Norfolk.

[Catchawave]

2. Thanks ! I think, I'll try it again

I had some extra discs I didn't know what to do with :silly: So that might be my problem, reading directions.

[CBGLuthier]

3. If you reloaded windows may be missing a driver

XP may not have detected your modem and a driver needs to be loaded. That could be on one of the other cds you have.

To check this, right click on "my computer" and select the properties option from the dropdown menu.

This will pull up your system properties display. Click on the harware tab and then click the device manager button.

Look down the list for an entry that says modem. Look for anythig with a yellow mark by it.

If the modem is there and when you click on it all looks well then you have another problem.

You could always get a PCMCIA modem card or a USB modem adaptor (I think) to replace the internal one.

[Catchawave]

4. Thanks! So far.....

Nothing I'm clicking and inserting has detected a modem. My Dell discs are prompting for a disc I don't have. Even my MSN/ AOL support has given up.

Just wondering, is my internal plug and play modem fried? Wish there was a test for this. So far, support from Dell, MSN and AOL are all playing the blame game...LOL. And yeah, my Dell 3 year *UPGRADED* warranty expired last week :( My frickin' luck, eh?

:grouphug: to my DU computer group. You guys rock!

[landdaddy]

5. Try this

go here: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_5100&os=WW1&osl=EN#
and grab these drivers then burn 'em to CD if you have that available.
One of those drivers should work for you if the modem is not indeed fried.

[Catchawave]

6. Success!!!!!

Thanks again all....with all your fresh ideas and my FINALLY reading directions, I saved my little Dell. It was a software problem and she reconnected when I finally loaded the right Dell disc that came with the computer via the installation wizard.