In a message dated 6/16/98 11:00:25 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>... A newly installed USR Sportster 28.8 internal modem is
>  causing the machine to freeze up after logging onto the net.

Does the machine have a serial mouse? If so, read on.

I had a similar problem with a Sportster 14.4 external modem. I was all
ready to take my whole system back where it came from to fix it, when the
VP for Sales (a former techie) suggested an experiment that might save me
the trouble. He had me reroute the COM1 and COM2 chips to each other's
external connectors. (It was done by exchanging the ribbon connections at
the circuit board.) Then, in the software, I redefined the respective ports
to which the mouse and the modem were assigned. Voila! No more trouble.

The suggester of this brilliant strategem explained: the mouse looks at
only 9 of the 25 lines from the port. If the port or the ribbon cable has a
defect which involves one of the 16 lines which the mouse ignores, the
mouse can live with it, but the modem can't.

This may well be the first expedient that a hardware techie would think of,
but I'd never have thought of it in a million years.

-- Dick H. Fredericksen