Error 1084: The service cannot be started in safe mode

I have a Dell machine which is running on a Windows XP operating system and it will not allow dial-up networking to be configured because it is grayed out. I have already checked out the ms knowledge base but those are not working for me. So after researching for a bit more I found out that I am not able to start some services and it is giving me the error 1084, so this means that the telephony services are not running at all and hence I am not able to setup dial-up. I have scanned my pc and there are no virus infection at all, so what other problem could it be? Any help would be appreciated.

Can you try to boot up to Safe Mode and then check in the Device Manager for any kind of issues in the device entries, like any yellow exclamation mark or something other? You can also try to make sure that the Hidden devices are enabled from View, then ow hidden devices options. I think that this problem could be because of a driver issue. Also check whether your system is allowed to download and install the updates automatically or not?

I checked out the same and there were no issues with the devices including all the hidden ones as well. So incase if there are not many solutions for this issue then I will try to reload the OS from the scratch and hope that the issue doesnt come back in another week or so. In any case, thanks for the reply and the help.

I will recommend you to first of all run the HijackThis scan on your computer and then check to see whats loading on the startup with a tool called Silent Runners that you can download and install by searching on google. I was also wondering whether you have uninstalled the modem from the DM and then restarted the computer to allow it to detect the modem anyway? Can you try to follow the article called "You cannot create a network connection after you restore Windows XP" and see if that helps from this link - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329441