Modem takes phone off hook whenever computer on

Hi all -- This is a problem I've have for two months. I'm using a Dell Dimension XPS T500 with Windows 98. I have a 56K US Robotics WinFax Modem. I'm running on 128 mb memory.

Anytime the computer is on, the modem takes my landline phone off the hook. I wondered if some sort of bot or spyware had hijacked my modem, but when I am listening on the phone, I can hear the modem pick up the phone the very instant I turn the computer on. By the time I'm all booted up and ready to go online, the dial tone has expired. (I work around this by disconnecting the plug from the wall until I'm ready to go online. Then I plug it back in and hit dial.) When the computer is off or when the phone line is not connected to the modem, my phone line works fine, so I don't think it's a phone problem.

Is my modem shot? Is this a software problem? Or is a setting misaligned?

I use MSN dialup service and don't recall having made any changes right before this happened.

Thanks guys.

 

Go into control panel and select phone and modem options and check your dial up properties for the card and make sure the settinds are correct.

 

Sorry to inject humour into this but take a look at this site
it shows you the difference between a Normal peripheral and a Shot peripheral
http://www.oldvan.com/shot/index.htm

 

lol

 

Hi Guys -- Thanks for the tip. I have checked my modem settings several times, and they seem to be correct. I don't have any setting that seems to control whether the modem takes the phone off the hook at startup. Can anyone specify any particular setting that may be the culprit?

Thanks.

 

It could be a bios setting, but i dont know enough about the bios to point to the specific setting.