My friend has a malfunctioning modem on a Gateway PC, which is past the warranty period. This system is a has a Flat Screen monitor with the motherboard, hard disk, et cetera built in. It is probably designed like a laptop system. If it had a tower or desktop case, I would open it up without qualms.

If I am careful, am I likely to damage anything by opening up this beast?

All the internal diagnostics indicate that the modem is working and drivers are installed. The Phone Dialer accessory with Windows 98 cannot dial out. It reports the modem in use by another application. A telephone connected to the system gets no dial tone. I know I did the connections correctly: From one modem phone connection to the phone company wall jack; From the other to the telephone. On other systems, you get a dial tone when the modem is not active.

I am certain that there is a loose or broken connection. I would open a tower system and try to reseat the modem. Is this something I should try on this system?

Have you tried safe mode to see if there is more than one instance of the modem?

I am a bit hesitant of removing the drivers and resintalling them, because if it is really bad then it is likely it won't be found.

Also, it is likely that that machine has no serial ports, just USB?

I would say the easiest solution would be an external modem...

The last Gateway all-in-one box I opened up was an Astro. Bad modem on that one too. If the one you're dealing with is anything similar, GAteway might still be using a built-in modem on their all-in-onbe boxes. THat means the modem is a chip on the motherboard, with a phone plug also built onto the board. The Astro had no slot to put a replacement modem into, and nothing I could find to disable it either, if I remember correctly...

Opening that one was no big problem, just had to be careful. The case split into two peices, one holding the monitor and one holding everything else. The monitor was connected by a slot type connector similar to the old 5 1/4" floppy connectors. When you lift off the top half, it unplugs along the way. The same connector was routed to everything, so it carried video signal as well as power to the monitor, the rest was connected in the lower half with standard - sort of - wires and cables.

Before opening it, try everything else possible by way of software, and if it's built anything like the Astro it probably won't be a big risk to open it up if necessary. Check the back, if it has no slot covers like standard tower cases, just a small hole with a phone plug, don't waste your time, it's built in and can't be replaced and there's no slot to plug another modem into. Find a BIOS setting to disable it and get a USB modem is the only option if that is the case...If the built in modem can be disabled...

Paleo Pete: Thanx for the advice. Using the USB port looks like a safe idea. I hope it has a built-in modem which can be disabled.

Since I do not own this beast, I hate to risk opening it. A very knowledgable friend of mine damaged a laptop when he opened it. I never opened one and I imagine that there is hardly any space between components.

Laptops are an entirely different animal altogether, I've opened up 15 or 20. You can barely stuff two business cards inside those things, and it's a couple of hours to get one disassembled. If the computer you're dealing with is in a decent sized enclosure, it probably isn't nearly as cramped.

The Astro had a 15" monitor built in, standard CRT so it had a case big enough to hold it and the other hardware, but the whole thing is smaller than a standard desktop case and a separate monitor. Good idea, if it hadn't been built and intended to be a disposable (and mostly non-repairable) computer...Nothing replaceable, it's all built onto the motherboard. Which costs enough most people will junk it and buy a new one.