Have you ever experienced the annoying fact that your modem is unusable just because you forgot to turn it on when you booted Windows 2000? Well, I experience it all the time!

Windows 2000 attempts to query my modem every time it loads up. Maybe it's to make sure that the device is present and in working order. But I often forget to turn the modem on and wallah!, the modem is non-existent as far as Win2k is concerned. So, when I try to connect to the Net, all I get is the error message - Unable to connect.

Pretty frustrating, isn't it? Up till now, the only way around this is to restart Windows 2000 and remember to turn on the modem before it starts loading. As you can imagine, that's tedious and really a waste of time. Here is a permanent workaround that will save you the dubious pleasure of rebooting Windows 2000.

1. Go to Control Panel and select Phone and Modem Options.

2. Select the Modems tab and you will see a screen similar to the one below :-

3. Remove your existing modem by selecting it and then clicking on the Remove button.
      
4. Then, click on the Add... button. The following screen will pop up.

5. Tick the Don't detect my modem option and click on the Next button.
      
6. The next screen will allow you to select your modem model.

7. If you have the driver for your modem on a disk or CD, you can load it using the Have Disk option. If your modem isn't listed in this screen and you don't have the specific driver for it, you can always select one of the generic drivers for your modem (shown above). In this example, I'll be adding the driver for the US Robotics 56K external modem.
     
8. In the next screen, select the correct port for your modem.

9. After clicking the Next button, Windows 2000 will install the driver and the following screen will appear.

10. Click on Finish and the Phone and Modem Options page should show the following screen :-

11. A quick check of the dial-up properties will reveal a page something like this one :-

12. From now onwards, you won't need to remember to turn on your modem before you boot up Windows 2000. You can turn on your modem just before you need to use it, saving power and reducing the wear and tear on your modem (because the modem will get very hot even when not actually in use).

Notes

• If Windows 2000 is autodetecting your modem at startup, that means you have left your modem on! If you always keep your modem turned on, then there's no need for you to use this tip. If you use this tip, make sure your modem is turned off before Windows 2000 boots to avoid the autodetection process.

If you have a comment or question about this tip, please post them here.

Thanks for your time and I hope this tip has helped you some! :)

Adrian Wong
Adrian's Rojak Pot
http://www.rojakpot.com/
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/