Windows 7 - Problems with external modem

I have a dell Inspirion 15r laptop. I live in an area that still does not have highspeed internet so i am forced to use dialup. My laptop did not come with a built in modem so i had to buy an external one.Dell recommend the conexant 56k external modem so I bought one from dell. From the moment i plugged it in and began using it I noticed that sometimes it would not connect.I use AOL as my ISP and kept getting messages that my modem was being blocked from connecting,the modem is unable to connect or the line is busy even when the phone line was working fine.I also would get booted off when online. One of my usb ports on my brand new laptop is now not working at all now and the modem began shorting out.I contacted dell and they sent me a new modem. This fixed my problem for about a week and now I am unable to get connected at all.Im getting the same messages. I just bought my laptop back in december.I contacted dell again today and they said I needed to conatct Conexant directly but they won't answer the phone when I call.Why was I able to get online fine when i first got the modem but now it won't work and is there a way to fix this? Im doing nothing different.

hi, have you got screen shots and or error codes, when you dial and get an error code they are linked to faults.

I don't have screen shots but 2 AOL error codes I get are (error: AC-11030x84200106) and (error:AC-10000x8420034A)

If you have call waiting or other similar features it can mess up your modem connection if you don't disable it before your modem dials out.

I do have call waiting disabled but still keep getting those same errors