I cannot connect to the Internet using dial-up modem after a strong thunderstorm came through my neighborhood
I have a Toshiba Satellite A65-S126 laptop. A couple of days ago a strong thunderstorm came through my neighborhood and a transformer blew up. Since then I can’t connect to the Internet using dial up modem. I keep getting the message No Dial Tone. Also when I hook the phone line into the back of the laptop it knocks my phones out and there is no dial tone in my landline phones. I have went to a friends house that is not in my neighborhood and hooked his phone line into the back of my laptop and it caused his phones to be knocked out too with no dial tone. When I check the status of my modem the computer states the modem is working properly. What do you think is the problem? Someone told me it might be a PC Card. I would really appreciate your help.
If your laptop was connected to the phone line during the thunderstorm, then it’s possible that it fried your modem. Even though the computer states that the device is working properly, it’s still might be bad.
Here’s a way to test it. Open the Device Manager on your laptop and click on the + sign left from the Modem line. Double click on the modem to open up the Software Modem Properties window. Then go to the Diagnostics tab. Press on the Query Modem button and you’ll see Please Wait… window will appear for a moment. It will say: “Communicating with Modem. This may take several seconds”. After Please Wait… window disappears, some query commands will appear in the empty box above the Query Modem button. Some lines in the Response column should state success.
If you get an error message after you press on the Query Modem button, them most likely your modem is bad and must be replaced. I would try to replace the modem first, but it is also possible that the modem jack with wires or even the system board itself has been damaged.
Here’s a Toshiba part number for your modem: V000042040. I was able to find it on eBay for $45. It’s very easy to replace the modem in this model if you follow Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 disassembly guide. The modem is pictured on the step 2 and it’s located right under the Wi-Fi card.
August 2nd, 2006 at 7:49 pm
My friend went to Best Buy and asked the Geek Squad there about my laptop and he said that he could disable the modem jack on the back of the laptop and place a card inside the laptop that would bypass the disabled modem jack. My question is if the modem jack is disabled how can I connect to the Internet? I have a dial-up service. Also can I disable the modem jack myself and install a card or is it something I must let the Geek Squad at Best Buy do?
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Yes, you can disable the modem yourself. Open Device Manager on your laptop, right click on the modem and then click Disable. To enable it back, click on Enable.
I think that the guy from the Geek Squad was talking about a PC card modem. You’ll have to install this card into PCMCIA slot on your laptop, install the driver and use this PC card modem instead your internal modem. If your system board wasn’t damaged by the thunderstorm, it should work.
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:17 am
Hi Again,
What brand of PC Card Modem do I need to get to work with my laptop?
Thank you so much for all your help!
I appreciate you taking your time to help someone who is so clueless!!
Thanks Again,
Amy
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:30 am
It doesn’t really matter what brand you buy. They all should work fine. Just make sure that the card you buy will physically fit into your PC slot. Some PC card modems are thick some are thin. You can take the laptop to a computer store and show it to a salesman, he’ll help you to find a correct card.
As I mentioned before, it should work fine unless the system board has been damaged too.
November 28th, 2006 at 4:13 am
Hi,
I have a Toshiba A65 I am currently trying to build up for my girl. I was happy to find an internal modem on Ebay for 10 bucks. I was a bit nonplussed to open the back and find no connection for this. What should i be looking for to install a connection or is this something usually best left to a factory install. looks like a bit of the boards are built as surface mount. I suspect from looking at your pictures from the link that this is the case. I do not have the black bar connector that I see there on the linked site.
Also, the laptop starts slow. What is a good way to unload some of the start up programs there. I am not sure which are needed to run the machine. one is a touchpad program, others sound good. I want the thing to do it functions. Are there better things to replace them with? A machine of this power should really be much faster.
Thank you
November 28th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Bob,
Here’s what you are looking for. The modem cable for Toshiba Satellite A65 – part number V000912520. Search on Google by the part number and you’ll find it. In order to install the modem cable you’ll have to remove the motherboard from the laptop base as it shown in the disassembly guide.
One of my laptops is Satellite A60-S166. It’s Pentium4 2.8GHz computer and it starts and runs pretty good even with default Toshiba software but I expanded memory size from 256MB (default) to 768MB by adding one 512MB module. If you have only 256MB RAM installed, ad some more and you’ll see the difference. If you purchased this laptop from somebody else re-image the drive, it might help too.
November 30th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Hi,
thank you, I’ll be looking at the internet for that cable.
The laptop was reimaged. I just thought it was very slow. It was one my girl’s son used in clooege until he dropped it and broke the screen. i played on ebay and installed the screen. I thought I’d done well until it started inverting the colors and getting hazy lazy images. I took the bezel and back off again. The inverter board seems a bit hot, I say about 190degrees, i hold it and can’t count to but 7 until I let go due to the heat. The image is perfect sometimes and stays perfect if I use a separate monitor. What do ya think i should look into to fix this?
November 30th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
Bob,
Probably a bad screen again? The inverter board is just a power supply for the backlight bulb, and when it goes bad the backlight will not light up. I don’t think that the inverter board can cause inverted colors. Looks like a bad screen to me.
December 22nd, 2006 at 3:29 pm
My dial-up connection doesn’t work when i have my notebook ac adapter plug into the laptop and went i try to connection it wouldn’t connect, but went i unplug my ac adapter the modem work and there is nothing wrong with the modem i check out already so is there something with my ac adapter?
January 20th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Hi there all,
I have the same problem with my laptop. I actually bought my laptop in the UK and have it customised with the company called HiGrade. The model of my laptop is ultinote M6500.I cannot connect to my dial up connection. It started when i left my laptop on and connected to the internet the whole night. When I tried to connect again to the internet the next day, i can’t anymore and it says” No dial Tone” and if i want to use my landline I don’t have any dial tone at all even though my computer was off and not in use. The moment I unhooked the phone cord at the back of my laptop I had a dial tone.Basically if I hook the phone cord to my laptop it knocks all my phone lines in the house. I checked the status of my modem and it states the modem is working properly and a success. What shall I do? Is it my modem or the whole mother board? I ask one of my friend and he said that the internal modem of all laptops are incorporated with the mother board. Shall I chnaged the whole mother board? How much would it cost for me to change the whole mother board and the modem?
Hoping to hear your expertise about my problem. Thanks
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:47 am
i have a problem with my modem card when i am connecting to internet and suddenly a spark appear and now by modem is not working ..i think actually what happen …..i am dialing and my phone line is working properly but there is no phone line i apperar ………help help and plz mail me the solution of my question ……………my modem is
Lusent company /…………………/ t
thankx
January 22nd, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Dirk Lyndon,
Probably you have a bad modem and have to replace it.
I’ve never seen a dial-up modem integrated into the motherboard, it should be a discrete board. Take a look at the step 20 of these disassembly instructions, most likely you have a similar dialup modem in your laptop. On some laptops you can access the modem card if you remove a hatch on the bottom. I’m not sure where to find it in your laptop, but I’m pretty sure it’s not integrated into the system board.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:51 pm
every time i plug the phone cord into my laptop, my phone losses the dial tone. so i can’t use my dial up. i see that Dirk Lyndon had the same problem 1-20-07. so is there a fix for this problem?
August 19th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Hi Laptop Freak,
you seem to be pretty knowledgeable. I have spent the better part of yesterday researching a misbehaving internal modem of a Toshiba Satellite 1130 to no avail.
The modem suddenly died on me after I replaced the T-adapter I used to connect both my phone and laptop to my phoneline. I purchased a D-Link T-adapater with filter for the ADSL line. The phone jack now holds a small male-to-male cable, the T-adapter (a cheap $3 one) and then the cables to the phone and laptop.
When I click on “Query Modem” (see your screenshot at the top of this page) I get the error message “The port that the modem is attached could not be opened”. Clicking on the “View Log” button reveals as last message “Opening the modem device failed with error 000005aa”.
There are so many threads out there treating mainly the 5aa error message but hardly any solutions. I wanted to access the modem to check weather I can stabilise its position (one of the solutions offered) but I couldn’t find the modem (opened compartments of battery, hd/dvd, memory, cpu fan).
I really appreceate any pointers from your expertise.
Cheers!
October 9th, 2007 at 7:40 am
I have a laptop PC which is of a generic brand. It has a 2.2 or thereabouts processor and a 40 GB HD using window XP Pro and 512 MB of memory.
My girl friend has a dial up system on her desktop and I want to be able to use the same modem on a sharing basis. How do I make the connections and are there any diagrams available?
thanks dennis dennisissure@yahoo.com
March 15th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I have a Toshiba satellite A15-S1292 The modem will not work. There were many virus issues with this computer when I got it so I ran the recovery DVD to start with a new slate. It still will not work. It is listed as a Toshiba Software Modem in device manager. The Device status says working properly. Query Modem says port modem is attached to could not be opened. Troubleshooter says COM port may be disabled. I try to look at Ports in device manager and NO COM ports show up only LPT1. Is the problem with the COM ports or the Modem? I can not find anything on the Toshiba site about either of these issues.
June 14th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I think I have a similar problem but I am not sure. My wife was online last week during a pretty bad thunderstorm. We have a cable internet connection so our computer was connected to the external cable modem. She says that during the thunderstorm she actually got a shock from the computer. Now I cannot connect through my cable connection (I can see other wireless connections and they do connect just fine). When I plug the cable from the modem to the computer the lights on the port do not light up (they do when I connect them to another computer). Is this a problem with the port that I can replace or is the hard drive fried? Everything else on the computer appears to work just fine and I haven’t experienced any other issues. Also the power was connected to a power strip. I believe whatever happened came through the actual cable.
Thanks,
Kevin
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Hey, I have a problem. I have a compaq laptop running windows xp. I have a dialup connection. I can successfully connect to the internet, as long as my power cable is not plugged in, but as soon as I plug in the power cable, the internets kicks off. If I attempt to connect while the power is plugged in I just get a static noise instead of the dialup buzzes and beeps etc. This just randomly started happening. Any idea what this could be?
Thanks.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Kevin V,
The only way to find out is replacing the modem. I think that’s your problem. Fortunately, you can find this modem here and it’s not very expensive.
August 17th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Ihave a problem with my loptop. I was dissapointed it since i could no longer connect my internet connection thru landline. Id been using it before for almost a month, but when i use to connect my loptop to my mobile phone then when i disconnect for it and use my landline connection it could not connect again. What is the posible proble with my loptop. i already bored solving thi problem but still i cannot connect.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:42 am
Toshiba modem cards are notorious for having very bad connections to their motherboards. A solution that has worked for many is to unscrew the cover for the modem on the underside of the computer and reseat the modem card. If that fails, try folding up a piece of paper to a thickness that will apply pressure to the modem card connector when the cover is replaced.
Worked for me and many others.
Best of luck…
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite A215 – S7444 that was also in a t-storm. When I query the modem it’s all good, but when I try to dial out I can’t get a dial tone. I can take the same line and plug it into my desktop and it works fine. Is there anything I can do? And if not, how do I go about replacing it?