Has my computer has fried 3 modems?

cyril85

We moved house back in febuary - 14 miles out from galway city - so this means i could no longer use broadband, and not only that but i also had a five month period of waiting around for an engineer to call out and setup the phone line, which was finally setup six weeks ago, and since that time some interesting things have happened:

1st modem for the first two weeks i had been using an internal dial up modem (which came with the pc when i bought it back in 2003). it was great at first, i was very happy, but over the next week or 2... it started taking longer and longer to connect to the internet (the noises it made during the dial up process went on for longer and longer, and it would often time out or whatever when dialing the number...and it got to a point where it would dial, hang up, redial, for maybe 10 minutes before getting online... and the connection speed became slower over time so i figured it was possible the modem is just... not working right

2nd modem - so i bought a new modem, this time it was a usb one.... it worked great at first... at it took less then 10 seconds to dial up and i was online with a 40 kb/s connection! i'm very happy.. but as always it didn't last...same deal pretty much happened, that happened with the first modem... it just gradually got worse in a matter of days....... ALSO - whenever someone picks up the phone to make a call there is an incredibly loud noise at this point... like incredibly bad static... so i called eircom, an engineer came out... he removed the connection from the modem to the phone line in the wall... and like magic the static noise on the phone was gone.... i dunno what this means though.... anyways i continued using this modem that was now providing a horrible connection until a few day later when it would no longer connect to the internet... when i clicked the connect button all i heard was a very loud static noise, and no dialiing up noises were being made.

3rd modem - so i bought another modem on friday (with a bit of birthday money - it's all i got, poor me) - it was an internal one this time... it worked great all weekend.... yesterday it was a bit dodgy with the speeds i was getting... but it was fine earlier today.......... and now at like 11 pm today my connection suddenly dropped... i tried getting back online and the connection speed is terrible again... like 12 kilobit per second connection... which means it takes like a full minute to load up boards.ie for example. the noises go on for longer when the modem is dialing the number to connect to the internet... i feel like this is the 3rd modem that is gonna be fryed, or at least rendered useless.

i know the usb modem i bought is fried because i tested it out on another computer and it doesn't work at all.... i don't want this new one to end up like this........................ i'm typically helpless to prevent all these bad things that happen to me since i've been 12 years old... aw terrible so it is.... what the heck could be destroying my modems anyways... both the internet + usb ones.... it makes absolutely no sense.... i could have sworn i got a burnt smell a while ago heh.......................... that couldn't be the computer.. i'm so paranoid.... anyone know what could be causing this? when i picked up the phone earlier i heard that static noise again.... this means damage has already been done to the modem? like with the usb modem?

well post if u can think of anything at all, i'd appreciate it.

cyril85

i knew it was unlikely someone would identify the problem but does anyone at least have an explanation as to why there is a static noise on the phone sometimes, but not all the time. there seems to be a connection between this static noise + my modems (2 of which are now broken, and the one i just bought on friday is acting up - and that static noise i got with previous modems has now come back when i pick up a phone to make a call)

i disconnected the modem from the wall jack and that static noise was still present last night, however when i woke up this morning and picked up the phone no static noise was present... but after i connected to the internet earlier, then disconnected, picked up the phone the noise was back again, luckily it's not as bad as it was last night... here again it's not straight forward but hey can't hurt in asking.

ST

What other Phone devices are in the house?

Do any of the modems have a UK lead which you use a converter for?

Do you leave the phone plugged in all the time?

There could be surges on the line causing a problem. Get a phoneline surge protector. It might not cure problem, but might save future modems.

Capt'n Midnight

If you are out in the sticks, unplug the phone cable from the modem when not in use. It's probably lightening strikes and surge protectors won't really help.

cyril85

hey well initially the phone was connected to a wall jack downstairs, while my modem was connected to a wall jack upstairs... i'm gonna create another thread and asking specifically about the static noise present when i pick up the phone, and even when connecting to the internet... even when the modem has been disconnected from the wall jack upstairs... these potential surges on the line are interesting... but do you really think that is the problem... i mean these modems slowly and consistently get worse as the days go on it seems.... or are they exceptionally durable and it takes multiple line surges before they finally give out... it's bizzare

also... on the 2nd modem.... when it finally stopped working..... when i tried connecting to the internet, there was an incredibly loud static noise... and i could no longer get a dial tone... also, when i picked up the phone to make a call with the modem plugged in upstairs... there was incredibly bad static noise... which disappeared once the modem was disconnected... maybe broken modems can do this i dunno... i'm gonna make a new thread