Ok so I've had this pc a month.
Modem sound comes from speakers.
Can't figure out how to get modem sound through the speakers (in vista or winxp), when I purchased the pc I downloaded motorola modem driver from the site, installed, had modem sound from speakers, installed winxp, restored vista (dual boot) and could never get it to work again, I've tried everything I could possibly think of, If someone could help I would be in your debt.

If this is a M5620.....

This model sometimes comes with a dial-up modem.
"56K ITU V.92, Wake-on-Ring ready (selected models)"
If that's what you have the modem sound for that should have worked when you first got it without you having to install drivers for it - they should have been built in, assuming this system still had it's original Acer software installation on it.
It should also work fine in your Vista in the dual boot situation, assuming you restored it using the original data on the second partition.

Did you buy a Motorola modem and add it to your system, or did you buy this systenm used and it already had it?
Does it have two 1/8" jacks on it?
Does it have Voice support?

As for your XP installation, or if Vista was installed from a regular CD......

Whenever you load Windows from a regular Windows CD (or DVD) from scratch, after Setup is finished you must load the drivers for the mboard, particularly the main chipset drivers, in order for Windows to have the proper drivers for and information about your mboard hardware, including it's AGP or PCI-E, ACPI, and hard drive controller support. If you have the CD that came with the mboard, all the necessary drivers are on it. If you load drivers from the web, brand name system builders and mboard makers often DO NOT have the main chipset drivers listed in the downloads for your model - in that case you must go to the maker of the main chipset's web site, get the drivers, and load them.

You also must install drivers for any other devices that Setup did not find the drivers for.
Look at Device Manager for listings for Unknown Device, or Simple PCI Communications Controller, or any device flagged with a yellow or red marking - those are the ones you need drivers for.
You may also need video (display adapter) drivers.

You didn't mention whether you installed the drivers for the modem in XP. If you did, the drivers may not be the sames as the ones you use for Vista.

I have no idea whether the following is the same in Vista.
In Device, Manager, is the modem flagged with any yellow or red marking?
If so, which color and what symbol?
Take a look at Control Panel - Phone and Modem Options.
With the modem disconnected from the internet if applicable and not in use by any fax program....
Choose the Diagnostics tab, choose the modem, click on Query Modem.
You should get a list of responses in a short time. If you don't you have installed the wrong drivers, or the modem has a resource conflict.
Choose the Modem tab, The Sound should be ON.

Take a look at your sound settings.
If you have installed sound drivers, or if Windows already had the drivers and installed them, there shouldbe a speaker icon in your taskbar lower right.
RIGHT click on it, choose Open Volume Control.
Some sound supports Modem volume.
If you see no Modem selection, click on Options top left, Properties, and if there is a Modem listing, click on the box beside it to select and show a checkmark beside Modem, click OK.
Make sure the Modem volume it is not Muted, and not minimum volume.

If you don't have Modem to select, the Modem may be using something else such as Aux or Wave for it's volume - make sure they not Muted, and not minimum volume.

Check here:

http://www.modemsite.com/56K/speake...

I'm not sure if the specifics there apply to XP and Vista. But check your modem settings and see if any M parameters (M0, M1, M2) show there.

Thanks
Tubesandwires-The pc (brand new) had a preinstalled modem that didn't have sound, installing the drivers from the motorola site made it work after restoring from the acer restore program never got modem sound to work again, I've checked all the setting, there's no other settings to enable modem sound, the volume is turned up.
All drivers are up to date in vista and xp.

Thanks DAVEINCAPS
I checked the site, still no luck thanks

That's bogus of Acer.
The drivers should have been already installed in Vista.
If they weren't in Vista originally. they're not there when you restore Vista using the contents of the second hard drive partition, or the contents of the DVD if applicable, either.

The same modem drivers you downloaded before should work fine for Vista. You may need different ones for XP.
If you're not sure which ones, there are many different Motorola 56K modem drivers.
You would need to identify the model. Some programs can find the model and/or the type of modem. Or there may be markings on the card, or a FCC ID number, that will help determine that.

An important point is you often should NOT install drivers while booting the computer if Windows wants you to point to where the drivers are - that often does not install the drivers properly. Cancel that, and install the drivers using it's Setup or Install program when you get to the Desktop screen.

If you have already tried installing the Modem drivers, see the part starting
"You didn't mention whether you installed the drivers for the modem in XP."
in response 1 and tell me what you see.

If you don't know the modem model, Conexant has a handy utility that may be able to tell you which one you have.
Go here, Agree, download Listmodem (listmodem_app.zip) , and optionally the other files at the bottom of the resulting page.
http://www.conexant.com/support/md_...

Extract and run Listmodem.

Then you can either tell us what the result is and I can look it up, or you can look it up in the pdfs that you downloaded from the Conexant site.

Tubesandwires
I ran the program
vendor id : 1057
device id : 3052
subvendor id : 1057
subdevice id : 3020
revision id : 04

unknown : vendor, device name, etc
I would prefer not to open the unit for fcc # or model just yet, If I do that I'll probably just change it.

I installed the same motorola drivers in xp as vista.
Turn of events; I tried some other type of driver (not verified), blue screen of death came up, I booted into safe mode and rolled back the driver, funny thing is the sound started working, so I went to winxp and did the same thing, sound works, but in vista once you go online and reboot it doesn't work again, leads to believe it's a conflict issue, but no conflict shows in system properties or system information...
when I query the modem it shows no faults/errors.

Also the motorola drivers were from a driver package that has several drivers, I've tried each one.

Got it!
I was restarting my pc, went into bios and disabled com ports and parallel port, restarted and presto, I guess what ever was conflicting wasn't obvious by name (audio).
Hey thanks alot, I'm trying to get this thing to my preferences, I think I would have given up a long time ago if it weren't for being able to discuss the issues with people, I use to tinker with pc's alot before xp came along, now I can hardly remember most of what I had learned, keep up the good responses, Thanx

I'm glad to hear you got it to work!

From your supplied in info:
Product - HSF
1057 - Vendor ID, Subvendor ID - Fujitsu

The stuff Listmodem found indicates the modem was/is used as an optional or standard component by Fujitsu.
A vendor is usually what company sold something, not necessarily who made it.

Acer probably did not make the mboard.
It may have been made by Fujitsu-Seimens too.
I know from previous experience some brand name systems have their mboards.

If you ever open up the case, if the mboard is Fujitsu-Seimens I might be able to identify it here:
http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com...
and find an alternate source of drivers and apps for the modem.
Also, in addition to a FCC ID number or Model number on the modem that might be helpful, many modems have Conexant chipsets, no matter what brand they are sold under, and drivers can be found for those according to the Conexant chip used on it.
.....

The mystery is what changed - you didn't mention needing to disable com ports and the parallel port before when it worked.

If you take a look in Device Manager at the Properties of the modem, you will find what IRQ it is using in it's Resources.

Com 1 usually uses the legacy IRQ 4 if enabled in the bios. You may have a choice of IRQs (4 or 3) and I/O address.
Com 2 if you have one usually uses the legacy IRQ 3 if enabled in the bios.You may have a choice of IRQs (3 or 4) and I/O address.

Internal dial-up modems often prefer to use IRQ 3 if they can, but the Com port often that uses IRQ 3 often must be disabled in the bios, especially on older computers, or on newer computers if other IRQs the modem can use are not available .

Whatever IRQ the modem is using, if it's 3 or 4, you can enable the other Com port in the bios that isn't using the IRQ the modem is using.

You should not ever need to disable the parallel port - the legacy IRQ it uses is IRQ 7, or sometimes it can be set in the bios to IRQ 5 as well, but printers don't require an IRQ unless they are ancient (older than about 1996).
Very few other things can use IRQ 7; some things can use IRQ 5, such as Sound .

For the Com ports, the I/O addresses are not used by anything other than Com ports and dial-up modems. For the parallel port, nothing else uses it's I/O address(es), so those can't be a source of a conflict.

Conficts often don't show up in Windows anywhere, especially when modems are concerned.
......

Another tidbit is if in Control Panel - Phone and Modem Options - Modems - highlight the modem - Properties - Diagnostics - you click on Query Modem, the second line has the name of the modem, but it's correct only if the drivers are the right ones.

The Hardware ID string at the top of the page is detected by the computer's PNP and does not change - that's how Windows determines whether you have the right drivers when you try loading drivers - it compares that string to strings found in the *.inf file(s) for the drivers.

Different drivers may work anyway if they are for the right modem chipset, but Windows will tell you they weren't meant for your device if the right Hardware ID string is not found when you load them.

When I first got it to work (sound) I didn't have to do anything other than install the drivers, I'm not sure @ this point what it was causing the conflict, it should have shown up somewhere either in system properties or in system information, I suspect a io address there is so many that I may have overlooked it, and chances are I wouldn't have been able to change it on this pc anyway, unless I went through the registry, which could create worse problem "by me".

The reason I thought of disableing the ports was back with win9x often I would have to rearrange the settings or turn them off when I would test or install a modem, and since I don't use them...

Yea when I queried the modem before it said motorola sm56 data/fax modem, now it reads motorola speakerphone modem.

It's annoying to some people, but broadband is't worth the extra speed for the money "@ this time", so if I can hear the modem I can tell ahead of time if I'm going to have a weak connection or even a dial tone.

Well one more step closer, now if I could get the start > program menu to look like winxp, I think that's way down the line if it happens, at least I got the search link back in the start menu.
Take it easy

I'm curious..........
could you take look in Device Manager at the Properties of the modem, and tell me what IRQ and I/O address it is using in it's Resources?
.....

"...I'm not sure @ this point what it was causing the conflict, it should have shown up somewhere either in system properties or in system information, I suspect a io address there is so many..."

As I said, conficts often don't show up in Windows anywhere, especially when dial-up modems, and Com ports, are concerned.
In the case of these, both the IRQ and I/O address can can have conflicts, but in most cases with other devices, there is no I/O address problem, it's a matter of an IRQ not being available a device wants to use. If the device is a card in a slot, the priority of which IRQs are available first to the card varies according to which slot you use.
You can change default settings in the bios Setup and specify a particular IRQ for a slot, but that doesn't work unless the IRQ you specify is actually available in that slot.
Also, as I stated, internal dial-up modems often prefer using the legacy resources for Com 2 - IRQ 3, I/O 2F8 - and the Com 2 port in the bios often must be disabled to free those up for use by the modem.

The biggest pain about dial-up modems is when you need to download something relatively large it takes much, much longer.
Such as when you first load an operating system and need to load all the Microsoft Updates - that can take most of a day.
If you have only one telephone line a, that's a long time for it to not be available for normal uses. However, nowadays many people have a cell phone so that isn't much of a problem, especially if you have call forwarding.
It takes me about 1 hour to download all the initial updates with my ADSL connection.

As far as stuff on the web is concerned, if your needs are modest, there's nothing wrong with using a dial-up modem most of the time, if you ignore that problem. Many web pages do load slower, and streaming video in color is relatively poor though.

I used a 28.8 modem from about 1997 to 1999, and a 56K external modem from 1999 to about 2001. Both are the more expensive "hardware" types - they work fine even in Dos and Linux without needing to use software built into the operating system, and they use minimal cpu time because most of the work is done by chips ("hardware") on the modem itself that cheaper modems (software or soft or Win modems) do not have.
When I was using 56K I tried having a second telephone line for the modem for a while since I was using the computer a lot and tying up the telephone line, but I found the cost of that line plus the annual ISP fee were only a few bucks cheaper per month than one line having an ADSL high speed connection, so I decided to cancel the second line and try high speed.
Since then I've been on a ADSL high speed connection, a relatively modest 1.5mbps max. I currently pay about $35 per month.
There are cheaper plans available in my area, e.g. starting at about $20 per month for a .5mbps max speed.
Having tried it, I'll never go back to a dial-up modem for the internet.
........

"Yea when I queried the modem before it said motorola sm56 data/fax modem, now it reads motorola speakerphone modem."

AH! I have fiddled with that model!

Modems with the same main chipset or in the same main chipset family often come in several versions - if your modem model supports speakerphone or voice it has voice support as well as the basic data/fax support, and a Wave driver is installed for it, seen in your Sound devices in Device Manager.
The drivers for a data/fax model work too, but you have no voice support.
In either case, you hear the modem connection sounds, if they are enabled, which they are by default.

The Motorola model I fiddled with has speakerphone support and has 2 1/8" jacks on the card for a mic and external speaker (hence speakerphone) or headphone.
I tried all sorts of driver versions before finding one that found the voice support and loaded the wave driver for it. You are fortunate you found drivers that support that.
I believe I had to try the card in different PCI slots as well.