Just to clarify this is an onboard modem right and not a pcmcia card? Sorry-I don't use laptops much.

Go into your BIOS and set the serial port for something else-anything available, maybe that will free up an IRQ.

Try booting with this parametr:

nobiospnp

my modem has a similar name: Intel ICH2.
ICH is Intel ChipSet.[/quote]