Dial-up modem 'No CARRIER'

[marc <gmane@auxbuss.com>]

The modem on the new laptop is dialing and exchanging with the ISP. 
Then, 24 times out of 25, all I get is 'NO CARRIER'. Very, very 
occasionally, I connect

I've tried both wvdial and KPPP in KDE. When I boot into XP, the modem 
connects successfully 100% of the time - so the wiring, hardware and ISP 
are fine.

I read somewhere that nic interrupts might clash, so I've ifdown'd that, 
and I've also tried lowering the line speed to 9600.

Any suggestions on how to improve things?

I'm on 2.6.13 etch.

-- 
Best,
Marc