Problem on sending fax with Apple USB modem

Hello everyone,
I use my macmini to manage faxes to help my father's business, as fax is one of the most important mean of communication to our clients. While I can only receive fax from outside to my mac, but I cannot send fax from my mac through "Send PDF" option, it just stop working, and "Waiting for modem to become available" without using my telephone-line. It is weird when I plug it into my macbook that it works.
Look forward to your advice. Thank you,
Victor Tang
Message was edited by: victan7300

I am having problems sending and receiving faxes, too, and have been working with AppleCare level 2. They are off for a couple of days, and the solution is nowhere in sight. They did capture information from my system as I tried to fax, and sent it to engineering. They have determined that I am not getting a dial tone.
When I connect my phone to the jack, I do get a dial tone and can talk on the phone (which I do frequently). I have been provided with two additional new Apple USB modems to try to see if that would fix the problem. It did not make any difference which of the three modems I use, I cannot send or receive faxes. Yesterday, I booted up my old iMac (OS X 10.4.11 with a collapsing hard drive, but an internal modem). I attached this computer to the same phone jack and was able to freely send faxes - every single try.
I downloaded and set up the application PageSender just to see if it was the fax software (I have been trying to just use what came with my MacBook Pro). Using the Apple USB external modem (as I have had to do with this computer and operating system), I could not send any faxes - could not get a dial tone, according to PageSender.
I, therefore, believe that the problem is with the external modem and/or the extensions that operate the external modem.
I did try what you have suggested above - the substitution of the IOSerialFamily.kext:
I partitioned my harddrive into two partitions HD and HD_2. I loaded OS X 10.5.5 (from my CD) onto the second partition. I then copied the IOSerialFamily.kext on my thumb drive (from OS X 10.5.5 the version was 92). Then I upgraded to 10.5.6, and copied the ioSerialFamily.kext on my thumb drive - this time with 10.5.6 the version was 93. I went back to my first partition where I have 10.5.7 (version 94) and tried to transfer version 93 IOSerialFamily.kext to the extensions. As soon as I tried to mount the Apple USB modem I received the following message:
"System extension cannot be used
The system extension”/system/Library/Estensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/contents/PlugIns/Motor olaSM56KUSB.kext was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it or contact the product’s vendor for an update."
At that point I tried to exchange the version 93 with the one that I removed - version 94, but I continued to get the same message. I decided to reinstall 10.5.7 again hoping that this would solve the message problem. No such luck! I did now have version 94, but the same error message. At this point, I tried a permissions repair. This solved the error problem... but I was still not able to send or receive faxes, because the fax programs could detect not dial tone.
Because I have never sent or received faxes with this computer - only my iBook (10.4.11), I decided to go back to the second partition on my computer and see if I could send a fax from the macBook Pro with 10.5.6. The results are sporadic. I had to try several times, and occasionally I would get a dial tone and could send the fax, but more often, I could not. There was no difference in any of the 2 modems I tried (by now I had returned 1 to the Apple Store), or whether I used the front USB port or the rear USB port. The sending of a fax with MacBook Pro and 10.5.6 was not consistent or reliable and I could only occasionally get a dial tone... with 10.5.7 I can never get a dial tone.
According to my AppleCare representative the engineers are "on this". But I see that the original post was in November, which was prior to 10.5.7; I purchased my MacBook Pro with 10.5.5 in December, so imagine that this problem has been around through several upgrades of 10.5.
This is unbelievably frustrating! Has anyone been able to easily send and receive faxes with 10.5.5?
Chris (hopefully you are still around), did you get any error messages when you exchanged your 10.5.6 IOSerialFamily.kext for the 10.5.7 IOSerialFamily.kext - especially when you mounted- or tried to attach the external modem? If so, how did you handle that?
Sorry that this has been such a long post. I have tried to provide as much information as I could in the hopes of finding a solution. Any ideas???
THANKS!

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The following appeared in yesterday's MacInTouch.com column:
Chuck Counselman sent a follow-up to his Nov. 16 note about faxing with Apple's new USB external modem:
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In System Preferences > Print & Fax, under the "Faxing" tab I had already entered my fax number and a "Save to" folder name. Now I clicked the "Set Up Fax Modem" button. A day earlier, clicking this button had gotten me an empty "Fax List" window. Now it got me a "Fax List" window containing one entry with the name "External Modem."
And now the Apple USB Modem answered calls, received faxes, and saved them in the folder I'd designated. Now I could send faxes, too, following the instructions in the OS Help.
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Cannot send faxes w/ Apple USB modem, can you offer some help please?

Hi,
I am using the Apple USB modem connected to my brand new MacBook and so far could not send any faxes. The modem is working because I was able to receive 1 fax (which I sent to myself from my Nokia 9300i).
The monitor tells me that: dialing... ok, connecting...ok, sending... and then it fails.
On the other side (my Nokia 9300i) the fax is starting to come in but shortly thereafter it stops.
I tried Apple Fax (embbedded in the OS) and also PageSender v.4 with the same results.
Anyone of you can offer any suggestion/help as to why this is happening?
Thanks

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Sru,
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I doubt the tech sent you an arbritary article to get
rid of you.
The fact is that USB Modems are in fact problematic
NO MATTER who the manufacture.
That being said the reason the article that he sent
you was outdated is because the technology is the
same outdated.
You must remember that the technology has progressed
well behond the 56k modems of old, and yes I am aware
that in many instances that is all one has available
for whatever reason.
That is the reason that the DSL was developed to get
away from the inconsistancy of straight dial up.
Bear in mind that the USB has shown to be unreliable
, innconsistant, and fair at best.
So the fact is that when the tech gave you the do's
and the dont's of USB modem use it was so you would
understand the problems you will face if they are not
followed.
Cheers Don
He was able to give me the information regarding all the do's and don'ts over the phone, and I doubt if he pulled the info out of a hat - so why didn't he just send me what he was reading? He gave me a litany, far more than I could remember, hence the request for instructions on (what you yourself mentioned) is a faulty device. Intructions not included in the manual btw. It seems to me that if doing a certain action, like unplugging it during an unstoppable disconnect loop, causes kernal panics, then Apple should mention it. Publish it, actually.
Mac OS X (10.4)
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Hello,
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The USB modem drops calls frequently. My ISP is
earthlink which told me to reX duce the stated modem
type to V50 or lower as a fix. But that has no
effect.
I have bootcamp and windows Xp Pro Service pack 2
installed along with office.
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Message was edited by: Steve M.

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Hello,
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Utilities Folder - Printer Setup
View - Show Fax List
Click on the Internal Modem Fax Printer and press Delete Key (on keyboard) to remove.
To add the Apple USB modem as a Fax device.
Printer Setup Utility (Utilities Folder)
Click ADD
Click More Printers (while holding down the Option Key)
Advanced
In Device Select Fax Printer (fax)
For the Device URI type:
fax://dev/cu.usbmodem
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<Phew> Are you glad it's an easy "one click" process..
John Halk
Melbourne Australia

Remove the Entry for the Apple Internal Modem in the
Fax List.
Utilities Folder - Printer Setup
View - Show Fax List
Click on the Internal Modem Fax Printer and press
Delete Key (on keyboard) to remove.
To add the Apple USB modem as a Fax device.
Printer Setup Utility (Utilities Folder)
Click ADD
Click More Printers (while holding down the Option
Key)
Advanced
In Device Select Fax Printer (fax)
For the Device URI type:
fax://dev/cu.usbmodem
Under "Printer Model" select "Other". Now for the fun
part. You must select the "fax.ppd" which is located
(harddrive) -> System -> Library -> Frameworks ->
ApplicationServices.frameworks -> Versions -> A ->
Frameworks -> PrintCore.frameworks -> Versions -> A
-> Resources -> English.lproj
Select fax.ppd
Or if your language is not English, select the
appropriate .lproj folder.
Click "Add". You should now be able to see it in the
"Fax List" (View -> Show Fax List). Close the Printer
Setup program. Go back to the "System Preferences"
and in the Print & Fax, select the "Receive faxes on
this computer".
Reboot. The fax should now be working.
Had the same problem. Thanks for the information. Helped heaps.
Given the "trek" to fax.ppd through the System Library, DIA ought to hire you to find BinLaden!

Problem on sending fax with Apple USB modem

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