Troubleshooting

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Most modem problems can be resolved by using the Repair Modem feature.  This should be your first step when diagnosing problems receiving caller information.

 

 

Problem

Ascendis Caller ID shows the date, time, and number of rings for an incoming call but the name and number is blank or "No Caller Information".

Solution

The most common causes of this problem are misconfigured modems and modems that don't support Type I caller id.  If you are using a modem, you can easily test caller id support and possibly fix the configuration using the Repair Modem window.  If the Repair Modem window cannot communicate with your modem or the repair does not solve the problem, please follow the instructions for the Technical Support Report window and send a report to Ascendis Software LLC.  If you prefer, you can manually test your modem using HyperTerminal or another communications program.

 

Other potential problems:

oYour modem may be using the wrong driver.  If your modem is installed as a "Standard" or "Generic" modem, this is likely the case.  Try reinstalling with the correct driver.  Check your modem (or computer) manufacturer's web site for the latest driver.  The Repair Modem window can sometimes overcome incorrect drivers.
oYour modem configuration may not have caller id enabled.  The Repair Modem window can usually fix this problem.  Or, see Enabling Caller ID Support On Your Modem.  Or try accessing the modem without TAPI.
oYour phone line may not have caller id service enabled.  You can test this by hooking a hardware caller id device to your phone line.
oYou (or someone else) may be picking up the phone before the caller information is received. The caller information is normally sent between the first and second rings. If in doubt, don't pick up the phone until the third ring.
oAnother device on the phone line may be interfering. If the phone line doesn't run directly from the wall jack to your modem, try plugging the modem directly into the wall jack. If this fixes the problem, you can reconnect the other devices one at a time to determine which one is responsible. Some fax machines and other specialized phone devices pick up the phone before other devices can receive the caller information.  You can also try disconnecting devices connected to different wall jacks, if they use the same phone line, even if they're in different rooms.  Fax machines and phone line sharing devices are most likely to cause problems.  (Note that such devices frequently cannot be made to work with other devices.)  Surge protectors with telephone line protection can also cause problems.  If bypassing the surge protector fixes the problem, contact your surge protector manufacturer or try a different model.
oYour phone company may be sending the caller information incorrectly, or your modem may be reporting it incorrectly.

 

Some phone companies use the wrong code(s) for the caller information, which can confuse modems and Windows.  You can verify this in the Repair Modem window by clicking the "More" button and looking at the modem messages, or by looking in the Modem Log.  If you see one or more "MESG" or "TYPE" messages, then this may be the problem.  It has been reported that at least one Sportster model modem corrects the problem in at least some cases, but this has not been verified by any Ascendis Caller ID users.  The Repair Modem window may be able to workaround this problem.  If not, please follow the instructions for the Technical Support Report window and send a report to Ascendis Software LLC.  We may be able to send a modem configuration change to workaround the problem.  At the moment, Ascendis Caller ID cannot work around this problem as Windows does not give it the information it needs.

oYour operating system may not support it.  Windows NT 4 does not provide caller id information, even if your modem supports it.

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID shows the correct caller information in the Repair Modem window, but not in the Call list, even after repairing the modem configuration.

Solution

Ascendis Caller ID cannot repair all modem configuration errors.  If you tried the Repair button in the Repair Modem window and restarted your computer as instructed but Ascendis Caller ID still does not display the caller information, try one of the following:

oBypass TAPI and communicate directly with the modem
oWait until the phone rings three times and Ascendis Caller ID does not report the caller information.  Send a Technical Support Report to Ascendis Software LLC.  We will look at the report and, if possible, send a registry patch to fix the modem configuration, or give more information about the problem.

 


Problem

After deleting, replacing, or adding a modem, Ascendis Caller ID can't access the modem, or doesn't detect any calls, or doesn't report the name or phone number for any calls.

Solution

Try rebuilding the devices list.

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID reports the name and number of callers, except for private or out-of-area calls.

Solution

Your phone company may be sending the caller information incorrectly.  Some phone companies use the wrong code(s) for the caller information, which can confuse modems and Windows.  It has been reported that at least one Sportster model modem corrects the problem in at least some cases, but this has not been verified by any Ascendis Caller ID users.  At the moment,  Ascendis Caller IDcannot work around this problem as Windows does not give it the information it needs.

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID speaks the "Display Name" field from the Contact record, but not the "Speak Name" field.

Solution

Ascendis Caller ID version 1 didn't differentiate between Display Name and Speak Name.  Thus, the actions in version 1 referred to the Display Name field.  If you installed Ascendis Caller ID version 2 over version 1, the old actions were kept.  You can correct this by making sure any Speak commands use {SpeakName} instead of {Name}.  If you're using DWS scripting, use CallInfo.SpeakName.  Normally this only requires changing the action named "Default".

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID doesn't speak the caller information.

Solution

Please check the following:

oMake sure sound is not disabled, and the volume within Ascendis Caller ID is not all the way down.  This is set in the Sound page of the Options window.
oMake sure Ascendis Caller ID is not muted.
oIf the caller is a contact in the Contact list, edit the Action for the contact, and make sure the Speak command is enabled.
oIf the caller is not a contact in the Contact list, edit the Action for "New incoming caller action" (this is set in the Advanced page of the Options window), and make sure the Speak command is enabled.
oIf you're not running Windows XP or later, the text-to-speech engine may not be installed.  Ascendis Caller ID is only supported on Windows XP and later.

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID doesn't speak the caller information immediately, or it starts speaking immediately but doesn't finish until much later.

Solution

Microsoft's text-to-speech engines appear to run at a very low priority, so if other programs are running on the computer part or all of the speech may be delayed by several seconds to several minutes.  This is very noticeable when running Seti@Home, for example.  The only solution we have found is to use a different speech engine.  We have had luck with the Lernout & Hauspie British English engine, for example.

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID only speaks once, or never, although a voice is selected on the Speech page of the Options window.

Solution

Some speech engines apparently don't do a good job of following Microsoft's Speech API, and misbehave.  One named "TextAssist 2.1 (MultiSpeaker)" is known to exhibit this behavior.  Select another voice and try again.  If you don't have any others, install the speech engines as described on the Ascendis Software LLC web site.

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID doesn't show the caller information until the second ring.

Solution

In the US, the caller information is sent by the phone company between the first and second rings.  However, Windows 95 is slow to report the caller id information.  The only solution we have found is to upgrade to Windows 98 or later.

 


Problem

Ascendis Caller ID shows phone calls even when the phone doesn't ring.  This may occur when the phone is picked up or during a phone call or for no apparent reason.

Solution

Modems are supposed to send "RING" messages when the phone rings.  Some modems send "RING" messages when the phone is not ringing.  This can be verified by looking at the Modem Log.  We have seen this happen with several US Robotics modems.  In one case, US Robotics, the modem manufacturer, opted to replace the modem.  We have had some success with disabling the Modem-on-Hold feature with these modems using the US Robotics "ControlCenter" program.

 


Problem

Two copies of Ascendis Caller ID are started when I log in or Windows starts.

Solution

This could happen in older versions if a restricted user enabled the "Start Caller ID when Windows starts" option, then a different user with administrative access did the same.  Versions 2.0.0.6 and later prevent Ascendis Caller ID from starting if it is already running in any user session.

 

If you didn't find the answer to your problem here, please check the following resources:

Ascendis Caller ID FAQ on the web: http://ascendis.com/callerid/faq.php
Ascendis Caller ID Forums on the web: http://ascendis.com/forum/index.php?c=3