Microsoft Shared Fax Driver

[roundboy]

I can't send faxes anymore for no apparent reason. When I select the "fax" as my printer the first page of the fax wizard appears as normal but when I click on next it eventually tells me it failed to respond and then brings up amongst other things the Install printer wizard. I've looked on M/softs website for the driver to reinstall but there's nothing there, I've also tried surfing the web with the same result. Any suggestions???

PS This was happening before my problem with the MMTASK10.EXE of this morning.

[NHH]

The fax wizard will show up in XP regardless of if your modem is working or not.

Is the correct driver for your modem installed & working?

[roundboy]

I've just ran a test through PC-Doctor on the Modem and it passed with flying colours

[NHH]

Are you able to dial out at all using the modem?
Is the modem cable plugged into the phone socket?
If you plug a phone in the wall socket instead of the modem, do you get a dial tone?

If the connection's OK you could try to temporarily setup a data connection to see if that works.
Have a look HERE to setup a dial-up internet connection through Nethomehelp and see if it works.

If all fails, then it sounds as if your dial-up modem isn't properly installed or the incorrect modem driver is installed.

[roundboy]

The Modem seems to be OK. It looks as if it's the Fax Software itself because whether I'm in Word or Outlook and I select Fax as my printer the wizard opens up and then can't talk to the Fax - anyway that's how it was. I went to the Windows Components Wizard and de-selected Fax Services and ran through the deselection process and did a re-start. I then repeated the process and re-selected Fax Services. Even though the wizard appears to re-instate the fax services component I can now no longer select the "fax", it doesn't appear as a printer option - anywhere. If I select "printer and faxes" from the start menu I now only have my printer - the fax has disappeared altogether. I've been to microsoft webpage and it says it was a component on the 98 CD - WMS.EXE - but I don't have that and when I bought my PC it was pre-loaded with XP so I don't have a disk for that either. CAN ANYBODY HELP

[NHH]

To install/uninstall the fax service in Windows XP do the following...

• Goto XP's Control Panel
  
• Open up 'Add or Remove Programs'
  
• On the left hand side of the 'Add or Remove Programs' window click on the 'Add/Remove Windows Components' button.
  
• In the new window that opens, you'll be able to see 'Fax Services'
  
• If the 'Fax Services' box is ticked, untick it and click on the 'Next' button to uninstall the service.
  
• Once that has completed go back into the same list list as before and tick the 'Fax Services' tick box, then click on Next to start reinstalling the Fax service. You may be asked for your XP CD or the location of the 'i386' folder on your hard disk (where the Windows installation files are usually kept when Windows is pre-installed by the manufacturer)

Once done you will now have the Fax again in the 'Printers and Faxes' window.

To check the configuration of the fax service, right click on the fax in the 'Printers and Faxes' window and select 'Properties'.
Then select the 'Devices' tab, if your fax modem is installed correctly it will be shown in the white box.

All the best

[roundboy]

Hi Vin,
That's exactly what I did, but when I re-installed the component, although it seems to re-install it doesn't. I've tried re-installing several times and every time I go back the Fax Services box it is unchecked again. It doesn't ask for a CD or anything else, it says the installation was completed successfully but it isn't. Any other suggestions?

[NHH]

Did you manage to remove the malware/spyware from your system?

Sounds like some software resident on your PC may be causing these problems.

[roundboy]

I think so. In addition to a full scan with Avast A.V, I ran Spybot, Ad-Aware and Microsoft Beta, the latter seemed most affective and cured the malware problem I had picked up (MMTASK10.EXE) from Kazaa. (which incidently I have now deleted and installed WinMX). However, the Fax problem had started some weeks before - could there be something else on my system that these are not detecting. A thought has just occured to me - around the same time as the Fax started playing up I had installed Start Up Mechanic, could this be the problem?

[NHH]

Now the fax service should be installed, try going into the 'Printers and Faxes' window, then right click on the white space and select 'Install a local fax printer'.

Even though it didn't work automatically on install, I suspect this might do the trick.

[roundboy]

Nearly. Did as you said and the configuration started, I saw the fax icon appear and take its place in the top left hand corner of the window - then it dissapeared, the config stopped and that was it, no error message, no failed due to anything, just nothing. I ran a "thorough" scan with Avast which scanned 500,000 files and took 4 hours and found nothing - I ran Microsofts Spyware Beta again with the same result. Will I ever be able to fax again