PCMCIA Modem Recognition

[BJF]

Instead of hijacking other people's threads, (sorry, logreeval) I will start my own on the recognition of PCMCIA modii by Puppy 2.17 Full Install and hopefully my experiences will assist others.
Having examined all known threads and how-to's, I am stuck with a problem that appears unique at my experience level.
I bought a Xircon REM56G-100 card modem that the Intel site says is compatible, gleaned from the What Works section. When plugged in, one of the tiny LED's glows for half a second, as with a capacitor draining down, then goes out. Boot-up loads the card module correctly identified, but stops at the detection of the Analogue Modem. It halts indefinitely until I eject the card, where-upon it immediately identifies a modem on ttyS1 and goes on to desktop. The port may be left over from the first detection of the card when Puppy was introduced to it, but reinsertion of the card does not light any LED's and it does nothing. Connection via GKDial and PupDial fail. Gpccard can't see anything, in fact it won't start. The on-board WinModem is found on ttySL0, but freezes the machine solid on dial-out.
As an experiment, I inserted a 3COM card WinModem that isn't supported by Linux, and it does the same things: flash, halt, and carry on.
Does this sound like a machine fault in the laptop, or a matter of software adjustment, to you learned gents? I have checked up the hole for bent pins, seated the card carefully, and moistened the pin sockets of the 3COM card with kerosine (but it was all I had!) and plugged it repeatedly. No change. I would like to retain dial-up capability on this machine, not that it has had it since XP got the heave, but seem to be forced into broadband to get any connection.

Thanks,
John.