Can't use control panel for telephony or modems/dialing properties

[Buz Davis]

A couple of nights ago I inserted an AOL CD, hoping to be able to examine
what was on the disk. However, it immediately began attempting to connect to
sign me up. I stopped the process, but next day found that apparently my
dialing set-up had been changed.

Both short-cuts to my earthlink service now give the "performed an illegal
operation"
message, which is a page-fault according to the "details" button.

I can still connect to my dial-up service, but I have to go through the
dial-up networking page. Also, the modem dials using pulse, not tone.

When trying to fix this through the control panel I find that I cannot
access "telephony" at all: I get the message "An error occurred while
Windows was accessing the control panel file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TELEPHON.CPL".
I can access "modems", but when I click on "dialing properties" I get a
similar
message naming C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MODEM.CPL.

I have reinstalled Windows 98 (over the existing installation, I don't want
to loose
some of my directories) but this has not helped. Any suggestions would be
appreciated.

Thanks
--
Buz Davis

[PattyL]

Try installing the AOL cd that you cancelled out of and then from Control
Panel, Add/remove programs, remove it. If you continue to get the error,
see this article.

How to Troubleshoot Control Panel Issues in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=299923

If replacing a corrupt cpl doesn't resolve the problem, then take a look at
this article.

Cannot Create or Open a Dial-Up Networking Connection
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=254332

Installing the DUN 1.4 update will replace many of the files used by Dial-up
Networking so that may also help.

Dial-Up Networking 1.4 Upgrade Is Available
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=285189

If you are only trying to get your computer to connect automatically when
you open Internet Explorer, then in IE, go to Tools, Internet Options.
Click the Connections tab and click your ISP on the list. Click Set
Default. Make sure that Never dial a connection is not selected.

PattyL

"Buz Davis" <BuzD...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7364D68A-879F-4B7B...@microsoft.com...

[PattyL]

Glad to hear that things are working correctly for you!

PattyL

"Buz Davis" <BuzD...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:BAE8C1EE-E540-4563...@microsoft.com...
> Pattyl,
>
> Thanks so much for the reply, and I will keep the information you
> provided.
>
> However, I really don't know what to say ... the problem seemed to go away
> over the course of today. First I found that my standard connection had
> started using tone dialing again. At that time I was still blocked from
> the
> control panel. However,
> I just tried the control panel again and found it to work OK.
>
> The only thing I can suggest is that my anti-virus software was somehow
> blocking the changes I was trying to make. Some tens of minutes ago I had
> disabled it in order to attempt an earthlink software upgrade.
>
> Thanks again for the reply, and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving !
> --
> Buz Davis
>
>