On August 28, 2005 7:32 pm, Martin Hicks wrote: > I'm trying to get an external modem to work on a couple of machines and > it just doesn't seem to want to work. > > When I plug this Hayes 56k external modem into the machine that is > supposed to have the modem the RD and SD lights come on, in addition to > the RS and MR lights. The recieve data and send data lights should not > be on. They aren't on when I hook this modem up to my laptop. > > The modem doesn't respond to any useful commands in minicom although it > works fine on my laptop > > This doesn't seem to be a linux related issue since the extra lights are > on right from power-on. This weird situation also happens on two > different machines, and doesn't appear on the third. > > The kernel dmesg reports ttyS0 and ttyS1 are both 16550A and they're at > 0x3f8 and 0x2f8 respectively. Are you using the same cable with the laptop and desktop? Is another process using the serial port? Perhaps you have console echoed to serial? I've been working with Dell customers lately so I have to ask Are you sure it's the serial port and not the parallel I've had people put usb into the ethernet socket and CD's in upside down, and the number of people who unplug the phone when trying to disconnect the ethernet is what saves my handle times. -- Collector of vintage computers http://www.ncf.ca/~ba600 Machines to trade http://www.ncf.ca/~ba600/trade.html Open Source Weekend http://www.osw.ca