Having fits configuring daughters computer to work with her internal dialup modem after motherboard transplant. Can't seem to get com port settings right. Thought I would solve problem by buying a USB external modem but a co-worker told me I will still need to allocate COM ports and IRQ. Comments? My earlier question concerning this problem is here: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/143154.html

Providing you follow the instructions USB Modems should install, and it uses USB Port not a COM Port.

USB hardware does not use individual IRQs - it's all handled by the USB hardware/software. As far as installing any USB hardware the general rule is to install the software before plugging in the hardware & you only occasionally get asked for driver disks when you first plug in the hardware. One other option is to use an external modem which plugs into a serial port (as long as the motherboard has one) - advantage is that you know exactly which com port it's using (motherboards with com ports always use com1 & com2 for the serial ports, PCI cards decide for themselves which to use from com3 upwards which can make for difficult troubleshooting.) Other advantage is that they also use their own power supply. "I know that I'm mad - I've always been mad..."

If you aren't using your serial ports, you can disable them in the Bios. That will free up a couple of IRQs and might allow your serial modem to install.

internal modems don't normally need you to sort out the com ports. It normally allocates a virtual com port number to a internal modem and sometimes gives you the option to alter it but in practice you dont usually need to do anything in particular. Does the internal modem show up in Device Manager? Did you load some specific drivers for it? can you get drivers from modem makers website? If windows XP detected it and loaded what it considered to be the correct drivers from within XP there may be a chance they are wrong for it. eg. some modem chips like Connexant etc might be used by lots of different makers of modems and XP might go AHA, I know that Connexant chip!, I have the drivers for that!, but there might be something special about that make of modem that is different. When you try to connect to internet what does it says - can't detect modem?, cant detect dial tone? or does it actually dial but fail to connect?