Modem Problem

I have a new installation of v8.1 on my T20 Thinkpad. All is well, except when I attempt to dial my modem with wvdial. I get an error message: Cannot open /dev/modem: Input/output error repeated twice more. I have a Xircom Intel Mini-PC modem which worked without any problems with v 8.0. I ran the yast2 module to configure the modem. Also there is a symbolic link /dev/modem ---> /dev/ttyS1 Solution(s) will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.