ppp dialup problem
 

Hi,

My dial up on Redhead 8 has been working ok for more than a year but is now broken.
Couple of days ago I tried the command:
rmmod hcfpciserial hcfpcispec hcfpciengine
It failed and since then when I try to start pppd the modem driver
cnx..mdmthrf seems to be thrashing, using up to 40% of CPU time and
still runs for another five minutes after pppd dies, using up to 20%
of cpu time. A lsof on pppd and cnx..mdmthrf shows the following:
---------
==>sudo /usr/sbin/lsof -p 8341
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
pppd 8341 root cwd DIR 3,2 4096 2 /
pppd 8341 root rtd DIR 3,2 4096 2 /
pppd 8341 root txt REG 3,2 213202 392135 /usr/sbin/pppd
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 87341 114283 /lib/ld-2.2.93.so
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 8192 689508 /var/run/pppd.tdb
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 37114 114368 /lib/libpam.so.0.75
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 11314 114296 /lib/libdl-2.2.93.so
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 10421 114334 /lib/libutil-2.2.93.so
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 22351 114294 /lib/libcrypt-2.2.93.so
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 42657 114316
/lib/libnss_files-2.2.93.so
pppd 8341 root mem REG 3,2 1395734 375407
/lib/i686/libc-2.2.93.sopppd 8341 root 3u unix 0xc5ae7b00
9801 socket
pppd 8341 root 4u CHR 108,0 67201 /dev/ppp
pppd 8341 root 5u sock 0,0 9819 can't identify protocol
pppd 8341 root 6u REG 3,2 8192 689508 /var/run/pppd.tdb
===>sudo /usr/sbin/lsof -p 8358
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
cnxthcf_m 8358 root cwd DIR 3,2 4096 2 /
cnxthcf_m 8358 root rtd DIR 3,2 4096 2 /
cnxthcf_m 8358 root 10u FIFO 3,2 65502 /dev/initctl
---------------------------
Any idea what might be messed up? thanks