Thinkpads Forum

I have a T60 Type 1951. I have to use 56k dial-up to connect to work a lot of the time.

I've had two of the 56k modems fail in the last 6 months. The second time was last week. I got a BSOD, then constant error messages that the modem was in use by another program.

I reinstalled dialer software, reinstalled modem drivers, still no luck connecting.

I have called lenovo, they are shipping me a new modem daughter card.

My R40 I had before this never had this problem in 3 years of use.

Is the 56k modem on the T60 really fragile / unreliable?

The phone line is patched through an APC surge protector, so there shouldn't be an issue with surges through the phone line blowing it out.

Been some years having switched from dailup so there's no way of me checking it on Thinkpad T60. However in those days modem worked flawlessly on my Thinkpad A31p.

No doubt could be bad cards but there is also slight chance that the dialer software from your ISP is creating problems in conjuction with the drivers from lenovo or Windows itself.

You can look into following document:

Troubleshooting modem issues - ThinkPad

I googled for Error 633 (Modem is in use by another ptogram) which revealed a lot results pointing towards settings in Windows, Com ports etc etc. I believe you can find a definite solution by doing some search. Below are the 2 links I'm including for your perusal:

Microsoft KB

Error 633

Another thing you may consider... Where are you using the dial-up line from? Home, work, on the road? Assuming "home" from your comment about the surge protector, then you shouldn't have to worry about digital phone lines. However, if you connect to a digital PBX system, that can blow a modem. Such systems are in use in workplaces, hotel and motels. There's testers and adapters for checking phone lines and for connecting modems to digital systems.

+1 on digital lines. Lenovo has a good read on this issue in the documention that comes with the machine.