Ascendis Software LLC Support Forums

The program works nearly all the time as advertised except once in a awhile the phone rings, Caller ID "wakes up" ready to answer call then flashes "waiting .. waiting.. waiting.." and can not catch any caller info. An entry is made in the log with the proper timestamp and shows the max number of rings.

Does Caller ID need to be registered to run at a high priority in the OS, so if other processes are hogging the CPU it can get some time to process the call?

System config:

Win XP SP2
Athlon XP+2400
512mb
A-Open FM56-PX modem
CID 1.7.0.0

Hello Windtrader,

Without some troubleshooting, I can't say exactly what the problem is. I suspect the problem is caused by your controllerless modem, which relies on your computer to do much of its work. If this is the case, you may be able to make it happen more or less by keeping your computer more (by running programs, actively typing, playing music through the computer) or less (by stopping all other programs and not touching the computer) busy when the phone rings. If this is the problem, running Ascendis Caller ID at a higher priority will not help, and I don't know what other processes are responsible for handling the caller info.

If you have a standalone caller id device, you could hook it up to the modem so you can see whether it receives any caller info when Ascendis Caller ID does not. I have many caller id devices on my phone line, and occasionally one or two modems don't report the caller info when the others do. The most reliable modems here seem to be the five and ten year old ISA USR modems. The least reliable is an old external serial modem.

A less common problem is having too many devices connected to the phone line, or one or two poorly behaving devices. This can be tested by disconnecting devices.

If you're technically inclined, you can look the modem log in Ascendis Caller ID (Help menu, Diagnostics, Modem Log, <modem name>) after a failed call. Look at the end of the log, and see whether any DATE, TIME, NAME, NMBR, or MESG messages came in between the RING messages. Compare it to a working call to see the difference.

I hope this helps, and if you think you've tracked down the problem, it would probably benefit other users if you can share it here.

Finest regards,
Bill Root
Ascendis Software