modem stopped working

Hi, another modem question, similar to one posted 4 May, but is there a workaround? One of my son's friends dinked around with his PC & now son can't access the net (dialup, internal modem, don't know if it's a winmodem or full modem). I know how to r & r in win98se, but have no experience nor have winXP. Don't even know if son has the install disks. Is reinstall the only way? Where can I find detailed instructions on the process (getting the modem working again, either by "fixing the problem" or remove/reinstall (r & r) in XP)? Thank you.

 

It would be helpful if you knew what modem and model it is so you can download or source the correct drivers. Try phone and modem options in the control panel to get more info.
But the beauty of XP is that many (but not all!) modems will work with drivers from XP's driver cache. This is not ideal as you will usually find newer and better drivers from the manufacturers site.
You've got nothing to lose so uninstall the modem from the device mngr, restart windows and see if it finds an XP driver or maybe the driver it used before.

Paul

 

Forgot to mention another possibly simple cure????
Find out the day his friend mucked around with the 'puter and then use the system restore function in the Start menu, help and support to roll back the 'puter before the problem occured.

Paul