Is this problem just a bad modem?

[Floogeldy]

My sister was given a used E-Machine. She was able to get on line with AOL dial up through the Conexant 56K internal modem. The computer was so slow and had so much crap on it, we decided to use the recovery disk, wipe the hard drive clean, and reinstall everything as it came from the factory.

After we used the recover disk, AOL could not find the modem. We ran Windows 98 diagnostics. The modem and original driver are installed okay. But when Windows 98 attempted to communicate with the modem, it told us that the port could not be opened. We plugged the phone line going to the computer into a phone and got a dial tone.

It looks like the modem went bad, but what a coincidence that this happened only after we used the recovery disk?

Any ideas, besides replacing the modem?

Thanks,

Floog