RAM:
You might want to clean the contacts on the ram and the motherboard. See if that helps. If not, you might need new ram.

Modem:
If you can, remove the modem then uninstall the modem software/drivers. Reboot then reinstall and connect modem.

i got a PIII R30 Thinkpad and notice the pins that hold the sodimm ram in and the modem port are a bit bent, seemingly they cant take much force e.g plugging ethernet into teh modem port

you shouldn't have to hold the RAM in to encourage the machine to boot. This sounds like there might have been some damage done to the machine in the past and the RAM slots as well as the modem have broken away from the main board.

The RAM should click in quite easily. I also have a Thinkpad (mines a P2 like yours). My modem also doesn't work but i got around that by getting an Ethernet Card and doing things that way.

I'm pretty sure that the modem is an onboard modem and the problem might be that the cable attatching it and all the other things on the back of my laptop (ports and stuff) may have come loose.
I'm pretty sure its a loose connection for the RAM as well. I've gotten both the RAM and the modem to work before but they keep going back to not working. like, yesterday my RAM was working but then today it wasn't again. Also, i don't have ethernet service and the only thing i con get is dial up. does anyone know how to get to the modem and/or the cable and how to more permanently fix the RAM? some instructions for taking it apart would be helpful as well.

thanks for the help so far :-)

thinkpads are easy to take aPART - DO NOT DISMANTLE THE SCREEN UNLESS YOU HQAVE TO - you cant get them back again easialy - if you cant find the final screws there under the rubber feet and possibly the fn key

Gosh!!! You are so dead right there jbennet

I have spoken to another technician who deals more in laptop repairs and we are both on the same agreement that you have some pretty serious problem with loose connections on your motherboard.

Being that the machine is quite old you will be lucky to find a new motherboard for it. You can pick up a good basic laptop now for under £400 so that is what i would do.

If you can live with the Memory dropping out randomly its up to you.

Get yourself an external modem card rather then going to all the trouble of trying to fix the internal one.. You don't need anything special other then software and drivers to make a plug in card work.

Install the drivers/software, plug in the card, plug in the phone cables and you're there.:-|