System freeze when dialing modem

G

GFive

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Every time I try to dial my ISP via the internal modem in my G3 'Pismo' PowerBook the entire system freezes for exactly a minute.

By 'freeze' I mean that the whole system becomes unresponsive. The dock fails to respond to mouseovers, the menu-bar clock fails to update, the mouse pointer becomes *extremely* jerky and it is not possible to bring up the 'Force Quit' dialog until the system 'un-freezes'.

System configuration
====================

Machine: 500MHz G3 'Pismo' PowerBook
RAM: 384MB
HDD: 12GB
OS: Z9.2.1/10.1.1
 
yea that sucks. It happens to a freaking lot of us. No cure though. sorry. of course if you restart it usually fixes the bug for a short time.

twister
 
Found a possible solution over at the Apple discussion forum. Someone there suggested copying the modem script from my OS 9 partition (System Folder:Extensions:Modem Scripts). Seems to be better, although I have recently rebooted. Time will tell...
 
I've got the daddy setup, and my system freezes too, at exactly the same time. Also since I installed Office v.X, the systems slowed down a bit. Entourage never worked. tried to revert to Office 98 and I can't connect to hotmail anymore!!! (yes i've used the updates)

Come on Apple, more software updates please. Also Strange that there have been no GeForce 3 updates yet?
 
Assuming that you're using the Internet Connect application to dial up, there is another possible fix.

Try first creating a new configuration in Internet Connect application and copying the settings from the original config to the new config. If this does not work, try deleting the preferences for internet connect in your home folder/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconnect.plist. Also.. you could try deleting the com.apple.internetconfig.plist preference files as well, and possibly (if there are any) delete any modem related preferences.

Another possible fix is to reset your modem. You can do this using by following the instructions I found in Knowledge Base article 106592 on Apples website:


1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Network.
3. Choose Internal Modem from the Show pop-up menu, or choose the external port to which the modem is connected.
Note: This menu is named "Configure" in Mac OS X versions 10.0 to 10.0.4.
4. Click the PPP Tab.
5. Click PPP Options.
6. Click the checkbox to enable the "Connect using a Terminal window" option.
7. Click OK.
8. Click the Modem tab.
9. Choose any modem script that starts with the words "Null Modem, such as Null Modem 19200" from the Modem pop-up menu.
10. Click Apply Now.
Note: This button is called Save in Mac OS X versions 10.0 to 10.0.4.
11. Open the Internet Connect application.
12. Click Connect. After several seconds, a Terminal window opens. At this point, the modem has not dialed and you can send any AT commands.

From here you would type either "atz" or "at&f" and hit enter. Either of these will reset the modem.

Hope this helps.

-kaos : ]
 
Here's a copy of the feedback I just submitted to Apple:
There are some serious issues with the Internet Connect software in OS X. The main one seems to be a complete system freeze (Spinning Rainbow of Deathª cursor with nothing, not even Force Quit, responding) for several minutes, particularly when a TCP/IP app tries to dial out. Many people have noted this at the Apple discussion forums (which never seem to get replies from anyone at Apple!!!) and it seems to be between pppd starting up and the modem being initialised (if you pick up the phone while this happens you get a dial tone, indicating that OS X hasn't even started dialing yet). I have had freezes lasting anything up to 5 minutes due to this bug (and yes, it *is* a bug, and apparently one that's been in existence since 10.0 without being fixed) and am getting fed up with it.

Also somewhat related is the fact that the 'connect automatically when starting ppp apps' feature is too sensitive. Does my computer *really* need to dial the internet in order for me to access the Login preference pane?

All in all, I have been impressed with OS X so far, but this is embarrassing when it happens in front of the anti-Mac brigade ("Oh, you can't even connect to the internet without your machine freezing? And you say Macs are better than PCs? Hah!").

I thought the idea of making the base of OS X open-source was to allow users to assist in solving problems. This is pretty much impossible to do when no-one at Apple seems to respond to posts made at Apple's own discussion forums.
Click to expand...
 
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