Modem Quit working

User installed three softpaq (modem) updates on a Win 98SE Compaq computer. After the last update which was a WinME upgrade, the modem quit working.

I have uninstalled all of the modem drivers, and reinstalled the originals. But windows does not recognize the hardware as being there. When I attempt to manually install the modem, I get a message that WDM_Modem cannot use the loader modem.cpl.

I have done multiple searchs on CNET, ZDNet, and google for WDM_Modem and modem.cpl and found many people in the same situation, but no fixes listed.