what i did over this past weekend(long post, beware)

[LordKwiKSilva00]

i had a fun filled weekend replacing a modem in my moms gateway 2000...heres the story:

she had a v90 56k modem in there...she wanted a v92 56k with the modem on hold feature...so she went out and bought a creative modem blaster(PCI)...i pulled the v90(which i had bought from thronka awhile back and which took me 4 days of configuring, removing and reinstalling it) and installed the v92...installed drivers, rebooted, etc..windows loaded back up and i went to connect to the internet....and just my luck, the modem wouldnt dial out...i didnt even get a dialtone to it...i checked the phone jack with a makeshift linemans handset(dont ask :p ) and that wasnt the problem...i changed the phone line out, stil nothing...checked all my settings, etc and nothing...uninstalled and reinstalled drivers....nothing...

so, i pulled the creative v92 modem out and put the original one back in, hoping that i could get online and try to get some tech support from creative...booted windows up and installed drivers...wouldnt ya know that the drivers that were installed for the v90 were no good...so i installed a second set of drivers for it(more up to date version i had downloaded from usr.com) and the system crashed...after rolling back the hdd, i finally got the computer to boot to windows and go past the "preparing network connections" phase(win2k pro) without rebooting...uninstalled drivers and reinstalled them...crashed again...rebooted and this time i couldnt roll back the hdd(all save points were bad) so i pulled the modem out and installed a pctel v90...windows booted fine, and went to install drivers for this new pctel modem...little did i know that win2k doesnt support this modem, even though it was designed for win98se and higher...so, i pulled this modem, installed the usr v90 again, hoping that i could find drivers somewhere...found the cd that i made with drivers i downloaded from usr and driverguide...installed each of em and still couldnt boot the computer(each time it would reboot after installing drivers i got same problem is before)...by this time it was 5 am this morning(after working from saturday night straight through with no sleep) and i gave up on it...

so, tonight my mom went to wal mart and brought home a USR v92 modem...this one actually works :rolleyes: i am on my 4th modem and i hope to hell that this one works for a loooooong time...damn gateway is so picky about the modems that go into it...

i wont even go into my vid card upgrade SNAFU i had with this gateway...put the card in and kept getting memory parity errors....

all in all i would say my weekend was excellent :rolleyes: yeah right.....

[LordKwiKSilva00]

looking back at the weekend i find myself wondering....

dont ya just hate it when parts go bad, espescially a brand new $40 v92 modem, straight outta the box??? kinda sux

[gjimene2]

Yep, that's why I rarely buy computer parts from Walmart. Cables, I would buy, but as far as a video card or stuff like that, no way, they get mistreated by their employees.


Go newegg. :D

[LordKwiKSilva00]

actually, the wal mart modem works...the modem blaster was from best buy(surprisingly)

[Mntsnow]

I personally dont care where I buy something from as long as I know what I'm getting and get a good deal pricewise and the box isnt crushed :D

[davidw]

I'm with you on that Snowman, btw, how'd that auction pan out for you?

[LordKwiKSilva00]

i agree snow, but i am just surprised that the best buy modem didnt work(being that it was a creative modme blaster, and best buy has a good rep for computer parts)

[davidw]

I used to have one of those modems and it didn't give me any problems. Was it open-box or was it new? If new, take it back.

[gjimene2]

The reason why I said what I said about walmart, is that I have seen the employees drop the cards from the top rack. Especially their hard drives. :eek:

[LordKwiKSilva00]

it was brand new CC, thats what surprised me...my mom is taking it back this weekend comiong i guess...i told her originally to get a us robotics modem, but she bought crap creative modem blaster(my opinion of course, would run usr over that soundblaster modem crap anyday, easier to set up an more reliable for me)

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol gabe, i know...but they have cheep modems there, and around here they are usually pretty good....the usr that my mom picked up is v92, supports modem on hold, etc and was only 24.99, compared to the creative modem blaster that was almost double the price(but i had a $10 mail in rebate)..think the creative modem was 34.99 after mail in rebate from best buy

[Shyguy]

I agree about wal-mart, ive seen similar things here too, & I sort of know from experience as I used to work at one 10 yerars ago when i was in high school, we used to accidentally drop stuff then were told by management to wrap it or rewrap it then stick it back on the shelf (now I work for the competition down the road, Target, not a whole lot different but still better than Wally World). But over the last year or so Best Buy has been getting lax in their policies too, Ive heard a lot of stories from friends about having problems with stuff that they got at best buy, yet I have heard very few complaints about Circuit City.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

OMFG!!! my mom got tired of the problems with the modem on the system, so she went out today and bought a brand new Athlon XP 3000+ barton runnin 400fsb!!! this lil B**strd COOKS!!! came with a 160 gig WD hdd, an NForce2 board, 48x32x48 cdrw, 16x samsung dvdrom!!! i love it, i just adopted this computer, i swear i have died and gone to heaven it is so fast!!! w00000t!!! :D :D :D

[robin801]

you're not too excited are you????? :D :D

robin

[LordKwiKSilva00]

naw :p hehe, i ove this system though(for an emachine :D )l