Hi, I had a new modem/wifi box installed a couple of weeks ago, and it seems
to have messed up my Windows XP:
1) Internet Explorer does not work. Clicking on the "Connections" tab in
Tools/Internet Options causes IE to hang. The same occurs when accessing the
same tab within the Control Panel.
2) All sound is lost. The "Sound and Audio Devices" window in the Control
Panel shows "No Audio Device". Even though the hardware list shows my sound
card, I cannot enable it as everything is greyed out
3) All of the games included within XP have disappeared. Who knows what else
is missing.

It looks as if the OS is progressively disintegrating. I have tried Sytem
Restore several times each to different restore points, with no improvement.
I am considering reinstalling XP but not having done this before (and not
having any information about this), I fear that I might lose my settings and
data.

Can someone please advise? Many thanks.

"hng001" <hng001@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:71E89DBE-A6F9-4653-B1BC-7E3140C81228@microsoft.com...
> Hi, I had a new modem/wifi box installed a couple of weeks ago, and it
> seems
> to have messed up my Windows XP:
> 1) Internet Explorer does not work. Clicking on the "Connections" tab in
> Tools/Internet Options causes IE to hang. The same occurs when accessing
> the
> same tab within the Control Panel.
> 2) All sound is lost. The "Sound and Audio Devices" window in the Control
> Panel shows "No Audio Device". Even though the hardware list shows my
> sound
> card, I cannot enable it as everything is greyed out
> 3) All of the games included within XP have disappeared. Who knows what
> else
> is missing.
>
> It looks as if the OS is progressively disintegrating. I have tried Sytem
> Restore several times each to different restore points, with no
> improvement.
> I am considering reinstalling XP but not having done this before (and not
> having any information about this), I fear that I might lose my settings
> and
> data.
>
> Can someone please advise? Many thanks.

You can perform a non destructive repair of Xp. There is an excellent guide
here - http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Jim

hng001 wrote:
> Hi, I had a new modem/wifi box installed a couple of weeks ago, and it seems
> to have messed up my Windows XP:
> 1) Internet Explorer does not work. Clicking on the "Connections" tab in
> Tools/Internet Options causes IE to hang. The same occurs when accessing the
> same tab within the Control Panel.
> 2) All sound is lost. The "Sound and Audio Devices" window in the Control
> Panel shows "No Audio Device". Even though the hardware list shows my sound
> card, I cannot enable it as everything is greyed out
> 3) All of the games included within XP have disappeared. Who knows what else
> is missing.
>
> It looks as if the OS is progressively disintegrating. I have tried Sytem
> Restore several times each to different restore points, with no improvement.
> I am considering reinstalling XP but not having done this before (and not
> having any information about this), I fear that I might lose my settings and
> data.
>
> Can someone please advise? Many thanks.

There can be hardware conflicts that aren't shown in the Device Manager.
Here's what I would try:

- Remove the sound card. See if the new device works properly.

- Move the new device to a different PCI slot. See if the sound card works.

- For the missing games: Open Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, click
the Add/Remove Windows components button in the left pane. Locate
Accessories, double-click, do the same with Games, deselect the game/s,
close the applet. Go back in and add the game/s.

- For IE: Click Start, Run, type SFC /SCANNOW, click OK. If any files
are damaged or missing, they'll be replaced. You may need to reboot
afterwards so damaged files will be replaced.

--
Joe =o)

Jim & Elmo,
thank you both for the advice. I am waiting for my service provider (the one
who installed the modem) to respond to my complaints first, after which I'll
try out your suggestions.

Many thanks again.

Luke