I have a Dell Latitude laptop that uses an external Dell 56 megahertz XJ1560 modem with phone jack. All of a sudden when I try to connect to the internet (dial-up) I get error 680 that says modem can not detect a dial-tone, please check to see phone is not off the hook....Obviously I have gone through the basic diagnostics. Phone is on hook, jack is good (tried a regular phone in it and made an outgoing call), changed cables, made sure modem as in proper port...Now I am at a loss. Do PC modems go "bad" or is it possible there is something wrong with the jack on the modem card? Everthing looks normal and all wires are making connections with the plug. Can anyone offer any suggestions please?

This happens to me occasionally, too. IBM could not offer any explanation but advised me to re-start my PC, and that seems to resolve the symptom if not the underlying issue that causes it...you may also need to clean the contacts in the phone jacks or (sigh, drats)you may need a new modem.

It is more than likely that your modems driver has got "muddled up or corrupted" If you can reload it, and go through the connection routine to access the Internet(as a "new" connection).It should overwrite the old file ,if it still does not work, locate and delete that file and then reload as before.
Everything should work OK now?

Press these three keys together

Cntrl
Alt
Delete

That will open the program manager and a "Close Program" window.

Scroll through the list and locate (highlight)

rnaapp

Select "End Task", then try your dial-up again.

That file is listed by Microsoft as: "Windows 98 Remote Network Access (RNA) Applet. This file is the Service manager for Dial Up Network and Remote access components".

(They use the same file name for later versions of windows, too).

If that seems to help, you can try replacing the file with a new rnaapp.exe file from your Windows CD using the SFC program.

If you need the steps, let me know and I'll need to know what version of Windows you're running.

I hope this helps!

Dwight

You all offer good solutions. I have checked the phone jack, checked the connection holes on the back of the modem, shut off the computer, created a fresh dial-up file...everything you all have listed with the exception of the last one. And that is because I do not have the office CD. Everything was loaded on the laptop when it was given to me and I have no software. I'm thinking I should just purchase a new modem and see what happens! Eck!!!

You won't need an office CD. When you "End Task" on the rnaapp file, it just closes the file. When you click to re-dial, it will re-opens the same rnaapp.exe file.

You've probably checked this BUT :

On my phone line I have a message center set up with the phone Co., When a message is waiting the Phone Co. puts a warbbeling sound on the line. I've found that the modem doesn't recognize this as a valid dial tone and reports "No Dial Tone". While the regular phone works fine.

Good luck Mike B. (aka Byter)

If your line has message taking set up by your telco then you can try adding commas to the number - commas make the modem pause for a sec.

example: ,,,555-555-5555


MAybe that might work.