winxp sp2 firewall problem

Ok im hoping someone can help me with this problem cause ive had it for a long time. I run windows xp home with sp2 integrated. A few months ago i got a virus and i had a hard time removing it and when i was finally able to remove it the setting and everything on the sp2 firewall went grey. i couldnt turn off or on my sp2 firewall at all. i had the firewall on originally. i had symantec corporate as my antivirus and since then ive had a few firewalls installed but they are all ram hogs so am using a small one right now but want the sp2 firewall wroking even if im not going to use it cause i cant live knowing i have this problem still going on. Please let me know of a ways to fix this.

 

Look at this site. About half way down the page. http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html
How to use scannow sfc...

The main reason for using this utility is when you suspect there may be a problem with a Windows XP system file.

Perhaps you get a dialog box appear informing you of a problem with a .dll file, or your program will just not load! It is therefore worth checking to see if there are any corrupt system files using scannow sfc.

To do this simply go to the Run box on the Start Menu and type in:

sfc /scannow (leave a space between scf and /)

This command will immediately initiate the Windows File Protection service to scan all protected files and verify their integrity, replacing any files with which it finds a problem.
Have your XP disc ready as it may ask for it.

 

Windows Security Center (part of SP2) has probably detected the third party firewall you are running and disabled Windows Firewall. You should only have one active firewall. If you want the WF back, uninstall your other firewall. If it still won't come back... the problem could be left over from your virus incident. If the problem continues, post back.

B

 

i tried that file checker thng an dit didnt work. i did have zonealarm installed once and i know that disables the sp2 firewall. ive also had a few other firewalls installed also so.

 

OMG i cant beleive this. ok early last month i installed windows onecare beta to use as a firewall and antivirus. ya i know not a good choice. and just now i uninstalled it and restarted then checked out the firewall and its not grayed out anymore. i think i installed the onecare thing a longtime ago when it first came out just to check it out then uninstalled it. man this is very odd. hopefully it stays normal and doesnt go back to being grayed out.
im sure it was that filechecking thing cause i ran it before and it didnt ask for the cd and this time when i ran it, it actualy asked for it. Thankyou guys so much.