Win Modem

After a few months I'd nearly forgotten how bad my connection problems had been. I was planning on downloading full-time while attending to other things; unpleasant things straight out of the bowels of IRL. But at least the computer would be at work in my absence, delivering its usual high win / bandwidth ratio in fetching me some entertainment courtesy of These Here Internets.

*drop*



My connection problem suddenly returned in force, the symptoms just like before. I tried all of the fixes detailed above, right down to cleaning the fans again, but to no avail. I did happen to notice, though, that my primary hard drive was running hot. Alarmingly hot, and heating up everything else in the drive bay. This really got my attention because I haven't been backing up my data for quite a while; there may have been as much as 200 GB at risk.



*drop*

The service technician left a message 45 hours later saying that no problem could be found with the line and that I should call back if the issue persisted.

*drop*

It persisted. And it got worse: constant drops, immediate disconnects after dialing up, modem noises that resembled explosions.

And then there were the error messages...







For a few days I was in denial, thinking that others would start having phone problems and the telecom would have to fix it like they did before, showing up in two trucks packing huge spools of wire.

*drop*

At some point I snapped out of that wishful thinking and realized that any solution would to have to be my pwn. It occurred to me that the modem's PCI contacts might need a cleaning; otherwise I was fresh out of ideas.

*drop*

While opening the computer I noticed that it felt pretty warm, and after removing the side panel found that the power supply was hot. Really hot! Its fan was still running but not moving much air. With the PC open I dialed up and it connected instantly, downloaded like a champ, and all seemed well again.

After shutting down I took the PSU apart and cleaned the fan thoroughly, as well as the CPU fan which was also sorely in need, and gave them each a bit of oil.

And all was indeed well again.

I suppose that the dropping and errors were caused by heat from the power supply hitting the modem. If that is the case, then my Win Modem alerted me to a meltdown that was days, possibly hours away.

It might not be going too far to say that my Win Modem saved my computer.

Gotta go. There's downloads to be landed and I'm back to bringin' 'em in non-fail at ~ 4.8 screamin' KB/sec.

-Tarbolde

"For Great Justice!"