OK Computer Geeks Another Couple of Questions

[merv]

A week or so ago you helped me get my network sorted at home. Now I've got 5 Pcs running on it sweet.

However, only one older machine was still on Win 98 so I thought I'd upgrade it to XP. Now I've got a couple of hardware issues. Can you give me some advice on what to do:

1. Having loaded XP Pro when I shutdown the PC it reaches the point where the software says its now safe to shutdown your computer and it just sits there. Win 98 never did this and the PC turned itself right off. Pushing the power switch on the PC has no effect and I've got to shut it off at the ac 230v power point. I've looked everywhere for a setting change but can't find one. Do I need to do something in the PC setup itself or is there a way in XP?

2. While I've got the network going I still thought it useful to make sure the old 56k modem was going. However, its a Conexant HSF Soft 56k modem (which worked bloody well on Win 98 and always connected at 53,333) and with the XP driver even after its connected the noise keeps going. I ticked or unticked all the boxes in XP to say turn the speaker off and I've tried init strings to kill it but to no avail it keeps screeching at me though it works fine. Is there an init string you can recommend or some other way to kill it other than taking a hammer to its speaker inside the case?

Your thoughts please?

[NordieBoy]

1. Having loaded XP Pro when I shutdown the PC it reaches the point where the software says its now safe to shutdown your computer and it just sits there. Win 98 never did this and the PC turned itself right off. Pushing the power switch on the PC has no effect and I've got to shut it off at the ac 230v power point. I've looked everywhere for a setting change but can't find one. Do I need to do something in the PC setup itself or is there a way in XP?

Check in the control panel - power thingy.
If you hold the button in for 7 secs or so it will turn off.

2. While I've got the network going I still thought it useful to make sure the old 56k modem was going. However, its a Conexant HSF Soft 56k modem (which worked bloody well on Win 98 and always connected at 53,333) and with the XP driver even after its connected the noise keeps going. I ticked or unticked all the boxes in XP to say turn the speaker off and I've tried init strings to kill it but to no avail it keeps screeching at me though it works fine. Is there an init string you can recommend or some other way to kill it other than taking a hammer to its speaker inside the case?

Try...
L0M0

[toads]

with regard to the power button thing on the ex 98 computer, depending on the bios, ( most you press the delete key to enter setup while booting up), there is a setting in power options to set the off button function there, I can't see why you needed to run xp on it in the first place though I have 4 computers running on my home network here and I run different os's no problem at all. Just my 2 cents worth.

[toads]

also in the command string have you tried AT&F ?, just resets the modem to the factory settings, I always try it as my first option with any software issues concerning modems, cheers L

[Blakamin]

being that it was a 98 pc... is it "ATX" ???? just a thought.....

[NordieBoy]

being that it was a 98 pc... is it "ATX" ???? just a thought.....

If it was turning off ok before then it must be.

[Warren]

A week or so ago you helped me get my network sorted at home. Now I've got 5 Pcs running on it sweet.

However, only one older machine was still on Win 98 so I thought I'd upgrade it to XP. Now I've got a couple of hardware issues. Can you give me some advice on what to do:

1. Having loaded XP Pro when I shutdown the PC it reaches the point where the software says its now safe to shutdown your computer and it just sits there. Win 98 never did this and the PC turned itself right off. Pushing the power switch on the PC has no effect and I've got to shut it off at the ac 230v power point. I've looked everywhere for a setting change but can't find one. Do I need to do something in the PC setup itself or is there a way in XP?

2. While I've got the network going I still thought it useful to make sure the old 56k modem was going. However, its a Conexant HSF Soft 56k modem (which worked bloody well on Win 98 and always connected at 53,333) and with the XP driver even after its connected the noise keeps going. I ticked or unticked all the boxes in XP to say turn the speaker off and I've tried init strings to kill it but to no avail it keeps screeching at me though it works fine. Is there an init string you can recommend or some other way to kill it other than taking a hammer to its speaker inside the case?

Your thoughts please?

Have you tried kicking the computer yet?

[NordieBoy]

You could also make sure the modem log is turned on and check what strings it seems to be using when it connects.
I had one where no matter what I did there was an AT&F after my custom strings.

[merv]

with regard to the power button thing on the ex 98 computer, depending on the bios, ( most you press the delete key to enter setup while booting up), there is a setting in power options to set the off button function there, I can't see why you needed to run xp on it in the first place though I have 4 computers running on my home network here and I run different os's no problem at all. Just my 2 cents worth.

I've sussed the power button out in that it is like Nordie said I've got to hold the button a few secs to make it stop, but why has this changed just because I loaded XP? As for why I loaded XP, the machine I'm talking about has been the family hack for 5.5 years and was a total mess and needed a rebuild but to avoid a major like reformatting the disk and cleaning it up well and truly I thought I may as well at least put a clean copy of the new operating system on it and all is sweet except for these two funnies.

In my setup I can't see any function that allows me to make sure it shuts down, only one that talks about a delay but that was set at zero already. So I'll keep on muddling.

Haven't had time to get back to the modem yet. Will have another look tomorrow as I have to go now.

[ResidentAngel]

If its old enough to have been running W98, its probably slow enough to benefit from running linux on it ... and if you insist on running MS software, run WINE on top of linux ...

[PuppetMaster]

Prob 1.
Hold the on/off button down until it turns off.
If it gets as far as "It is safe to turn off your computer", then XP has shutdown correctly, just not powered down.
With older hardware shutdown problems can be caused by a multitude of issues.
Maybe your old pc doesnt have acpi. If it doesnt then you wont be able to shutdown the power supply.
Assuming it has acpi, and is enabled in bios. If you had APM enabled in BIOS before upgrading you will need to re-enable it in XP as it is disabled by default.
Go into the control panel and into Power Options, there a APM tab. If so, enable Advanced Power management, that will sort it. If apm isnt in power options, try this. the apm legacy node maybe disabled. Go into the device manager and under view, enable hidden devices. Try enabling apm.

If it still doesnt work. download and install the latest bios you can find for your machine. that maybe a mission if its an old pc.


Prob2
Download a later driver for the modem.

[merv]

Prob 1.... Go into the control panel and into Power Options, there a APM tab. If so, enable Advanced Power management, that will sort it. If apm isnt in power options, try this. the apm legacy node maybe disabled. Go into the device manager and under view, enable hidden devices. Try enabling apm.

Prob2
Download a later driver for the modem.

Prob 1 - I didn't know enough about hardware so thanks for those hints on hidden devices. I had looked in the PC setup at startup and couldn't see anywhere in there to change it. I've re-enabled the legacy node, but haven't shut down yet to see if it works.

Prob 2 - I had already loaded the latest driver from the Conexant website for the modem to run on XP and I've checked the log and the weird thing is the last init command it sends includes M0 which is speaker mode off so I'm buggered as to why the speaker keeps going. No changes occur no matter what init strings I enter. I can't roll back to the old driver because it was for Win98. I might just have to not worry about it as I won't be using that modem much. However, I have attached the modem log for a quick trial connect I did this morning - does that give you any clues?

[Biff]

1. What Toadie said. In your BIOS settings will be an option to enable the user to switch of using the PC's front panel and keyboard on/off button (if it has one).
2. Are you running any anti virus software? If so check whether the option to scan your drives before shut down has been enabled. Your PC will sometimes freeze at this stage as it attempts to read all of your drives including your 3/12 drive. Particularly if there's no disk in there.

I experienced exactly the same problem as you. The second solution worked for me.

Good luck.

[merv]

OK I just did a shutdown and PuppetMaster's solution worked for that no worries. So don't need to use the switch to turn it off any more just like it used to work with Win98. Funny that XP would default it to the switch to power off option.

Thanks again for that solution.