Soft56 - Using Other Drivers (Updated
17-Jun-01)
In order to use a driver, the .inf files must contain certain
PCI ID's that match your modem.
You can get all the PCI ID information for your modem by using
PCI Tree.
See this page for illustrated step-by-step of
procedure described below.
After you download the driver you wish to use, unzip it to a
folder. Make a second copy of the driver set in another folder. Make sure you
have the original drivers to re-install if you run into problems (either on CD,
or copied to yet another folder). Also, it's a real good idea to backup your
Windows Registry.
The new drivers you downloaded should contain 3 files with .inf
extension. Normally, they will be called pci####[x].inf. The .inf file ending in
m.inf is the modem enumerator, and the .inf file pci####.inf is the modem (or
child) .inf. Both of these files need to contain PCI ID information that matches
your modem.
Delete these 2 .inf files in the second copy of the driver
set. Then, use Notepad to load each of these .inf files from the first copy, and
modify the lines that have PCI ID information so that the ID's match your modem
as identified by PCITree, and save the modified file in the second copy of
driver set. This will allow you to use the driver set with your modem. [See
this page for sample/detail of this process.] Another way of doing this
is to open the .inf files that came with your modem, copy the lines with the PCI
ID information from them, and paste these lines to replace the PCI ID
information in the other vendor's .inf files.
Now, uninstall the modem - you must use Add/Remove
Programs and select your modem to remove.
Then, reboot your machine. Windows will find the PCI
Enumerator for the modem and want to install support for it. Use the HAVE DISK
(or look in folder) option and direct Windows to the folder with the second copy
containing updated drivers with modified .inf files. If Windows tells you
that the version of infuninst.exe on your system is newer than the
one you are installing, make sure to direct Windows to use the 'new' older
version: if you leave the uninstall program that goes with the drivers you
are removing, you may have a problem later on if you try and remove the new
drivers you are now installing! Windows should complete the installation and
you'll be running with the new driver version.
The following information was supplied by Ben Holloway who has had much
experience with these modems.
REGISTRY:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\HSFMODEM\0000
contains
just information on the enumerator; I don't think the information is
"active" during modem use, but is used during modem uninstall. If the
MatchingDeviceId isn't matched by the second registry key (for the modem),
uninstall is problematic, as above. No settings here to play with.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000
holds
the main information - same as an HCF modem in basic layout, I think. Karen
Tamrazian's HCF
Configurator
program works with all drivers.
There are a few differences in registry layout that cause some problems
for his program - the OEM string has a different key for HSP, and HCF
Configurator
reports "not detected"; same for RAS Init String. It is a very useful
program, and is far safer than playing around with the registry values
themselves. But, as always, "have a backup" is a useful warning!
The
init string, held in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000\Init
is the same for all the HSP modem drivers that I checked.
The
transmit signal power is held in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000\Country\0000,
TXLEVEL and
appears to be easily altered with HCF Configurator. Increasing signal strength
on a bad line can slightly increase connect speeds (say from 41,333 to 44K) and
retrains seem less frequent. Too strong a signal causes more problems. So,
adjust by a couple of
dB at a time. I suspect you could harm
a modem by doing this.... I've not tried to kill one, but I do wonder....
The
value that HCF Configurator seems best able to alter is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000\Country\0000
SPEEDADJUST which can improve connect speeds considerably on a reasonable
line. Changing from "Good" to "Perfect" seems to improve
connect speeds from around 45K to 48K, and is stable. Throughput does increase
slightly, but that'll entirely depend on individual phone line quality. I
haven't enough disconnect problems or a bad enough phone line to try lowering
this value to improve connections.
Multiple
installs, uninstalls and reinstalls can leave:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\HSFMODEM\0000
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000
"dirty",
with other modems still listed as 0001, 0002, 0003 etc. This can lead to
problems if the enumerator and the modem id aren't the same. Manual pruning to
remove all the entries is easy; do after an uninstall, but before restarting for
the next install. All the usual backup warnings obviously apply!! (Again, this
appears to be one cause of poor connects and disconnects - why, exactly???)
Ben
has used four HSP modems, and reports:
All
modems performed pretty-near identically with similar build quality, (so
penny-pinchers could buy the cheapest).
Two
main variables are the software supplied (Bitware etc.) and quality of website
update info - if any!
All
drivers from 2.02 through to 2.14.06/12 worked with all modems, but with varying
degrees of success.
Drivers
before 2.08 were worse for disconnects.
Drivers
before 2.08 don't like v90 connecting°
Driver
2.11.06 worked well, but took 100% resources (although with no problems, even on
a K6-233).
Driver
2.13.06 seemed overall best for lack of disconnects, throughput, stability¹ and simplicity².
Driver
2.14.06 seemed too aggressive on connect under certain circumstances, and failed
on ¹ and ²
ºThis
seems to be one reason why disconnects are more frequent in the earlier drivers;
they retrain more frequently (partly owing to the poor v90 support???) and then
lose the connection. Also probably one reason why they tend to be slower, and
why some fail to connect to some ISP's
¹crashed
modem diagnostic software
²hides modem properties in odd places
__________________________
1).
Having installed different modem drivers three or four times on the same Windows
registry, disconnects suddenly shot up and retrains were frequent - even with a
driver that had worked fine. So, uninstall (you always have to use the
Add/Remove programs from Control Panel; using either Modem Properties or System
Device Manager doesn't remove any of the files from Windows\System, or the inf
file, and it'll immediately reinstall on restarting the computer), tidy up the
registry, remove extraneous bits of modem information, and reinstall. The same
thing happens; disconnects. Again, prune the registry to tidy debris, but still
frequent disconnects. Original connect speeds are still as good as before, but
rapidly renegotiates then retrains. It seems to be the full-blown retrain
that kills the process, and the connection is dropped. This often happens within
five minutes.
2).
However, there are two things that help here. Firstly (and I think, but only think, that this is an OK thing to do) removing all modem
information from directory C:\WINDOWS\INF\OTHER before reinstall seems to help on
some occasions. Installing different drivers seems to leave this directory a
real mess with a collection of un-uninstalled information.
3).
Secondly, the driver file uninstall process is not effective in many cases. One
easy way to guarantee chaos is to have some files from 2.11.06 and others from
(say) 2.13.06. Running uninstalls from different versions doesn't always seem to
be 100% successful, and when you install a new driver you sometimes get asked
whether to replace infunist (the uninstall exe) as the version you already have
is newer. If you choose not to, uninstall then isn't clean. (- note that some
sets of drivers are supplied as a mix of 2.11.02 and 2.11.06 etc; this is OK,
freestyle mixing isn't).
After
uninstalling a modem driver, restart the
computer rather than go straight to detecting pnp hardware. Failure to do
this results in some of the vxd's not being replaced properly, and can result in
a BSOD during the reinstall. (Extra-difficult to tidy up, as it happens before
infuninst.exe is installed, or before the modem is added to system properties
device manager).
If
Windows insists on immediately relocating the hardware, and automatically
reinstalls whereas you want to install a different driver, keep all the drivers
in the same directory, and simply rename it (just add another letter to the
name) before restarting. Very useful with the hyper-efficient WinMe
4).
In some cases, the modem still misbehaves; I don't know why. It's got the same
driver files, and the registry has been repaired of extra settings - I think!
Restoring an old registry, reinstalling the modem has solved the problem - but,
again not always. However, by that time, that version of Windows was pretty worn
out with dodgy installs, crashes etc. So, that all has to be taken with a pinch
of salt!
5).
A number of people report that their speaker won't report the handshake; others
that the speaker won't shut up on connection. As well as AT commands, there can
be a set-up reason for this; installing drivers for Fax Data on a FDTamS loses
the speaker altogether; reinstall is the only option I know of to get it back,
and you need to ensure the right driver is used this time round.
