GA-7VRXP - problem with Hawking USB modem

Howdy

I wrestled too many hours with this one last night.

The problem: a known-good Hawking PN580U USB
modem refuses to work correctly with a Win98 SE system that
has a rev 2.0 BIOS F11 GA-7VRXP motherboard.

The modem won't hold a connection. It breaks off
during username/password checking. Trying to fax
gets nowhere; just can't hold a connection.

I tried it with several ISVs. I tried it with many strange
variations, all related to trying to slow the modem
down and remove compression, in the dial-up networking
settings.

This modem uses some fairly generic USB modem drivers.
Something's not working when it connects to a GA-7VRXP.
I googled around and found that people using the same drivers
with other USB modems had sometimes hit the same problem
(failure to hold a connection), but the instances seemed rare.

Happy to hear of anyone's insight on this matter for now,
I'm just sticking a modem inside the box

Stan Krute