can't detect modem after virus?

[melissa]

So someone dropped off a computer that I'm supposed to fix... win2k Pro. He had it filled with spyware, viruses and whatnot, which I've gotten rid of completely, and the problem is that he suddenly has no dial-up internet connections listed under "network connections" and his modem cannot be detected. It's not listed under the modems tab in "phone and modem" nor in device manager. Funny thing is, in IE's settings, it still shows 2 dialup connections.

I've tried moving the modem to different PCI slots, uninstalling and resinstalling the modem drivers, and I've tried a new modem alltogether. His modem will work in other computers.

He said that before he brought it to me, he called his dialup provider and they were sure it was a virus that caused it. I've googled it and haven't found any instances of recent viruses doing anything like this.

Want to avoid resinstalling windows. Only thing I can think of at this point is trying an external modem, which won't really solve the problem.

Suggestions?

 

[GeForceX]

There are some potent viruses that can completely demolish a computer's registry and leave half of the computer's functions to not work. Even if you got rid of the virus, it won't undo what damage it did. So there's not much to help you there except try to fix it through recovery console and if that doesn't work - reinstall Windows. He ruined everything anyway - the registry has to be re-built.

Try this: http://snakefoot.fateback.com/tweak/winnt/install.html

Apparently there is a way to rebuild the registry but it's too much of a drama.

-J.