Weird FAX behavior

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pflueger
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Pflueger

I have XP Home and I have a FAX w/ Phone connected inline with my PC.

After many years of perfect functioning, the FAX machine has begun to do the
following:

At seemingly random times when I am online, the FAX will beep three times,
then pump out a blank quarter-sheet of paper (similar to the paper put out
when you open and close the machine.) Something seems to be triggering this.
(But there are many times I am online and it does NOT occur as well.)

I have had no correlation with any PC action, and it was suggested that I
may have a bad micro-switch somewhere. Today I think it may have occurred
when my Pop-up stopper tried to make a connection.

Of course I will try disabling the application to see if it was merely a
coincidence, but I was wondering if this may be a known behavior of any
particular applications, and what steps I might take to correct it short of
disabling important applications -- such as changing a setting somewhere.
(The pop-up stopper has been installed for years without ever doing this
before.)

The slips of wasted paper keep piling up. Please help if possible. Thanks,
Pflu
 
If this is a stand-alone Fax machine, it's pretty unlikely that anything
happening on your PC will have any effect on it. What kind of Internet
connection do you use, dial-up or broadband of some sort?

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-P/I -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com
 
I have dial-up. I was guessing maybe some program might be trying to dial
out behind-the-scenes or something, and a possible coincident tone might set
off the FAX machine..

I had a suggestion today that it may have something to do with the modem
driver. The modem has FAX features and I recently changed the driver. The
new driver affected the modem sounds considerably.

I have an Agere Lucent PCI v.92 data/fax/voice modem card. I have been to
Modemsite hundreds of times over the years and have never felt confident
that any of the drivers I found were correct. That site is overwhelming to
this layman. Any specific suggestions would be welcome (I have yet to figure
out the type of chip I have.)

Thanks, Pflu
 
Unless you were trying to send a Fax with your modem, I still don't think
that it's at fault, even with the new driver. What you should be able to do
is roll back the driver for the modem to the previous version and see if it
makes any difference...I suspect it won't, but it might be worth testing.
If it makes a difference, don't re-install the newer driver.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-P/I -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com
 
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