The power went out and after laughing about how it won't bother my toshiba satellite 1800 laptop(internal power source ie. battery)my internet connection disconnected, ah.... it won't connect now, doesn't hear the dial tone & states there is no dial tone, refreshed the driver, device manager says it's ok, when detect dial tone is turned off it dials but doesn't make contact with the line. HELP!!, The PCMCIAcard modem I bought connects at half the speed but that's another post I guess, any thoughts are muchly appreciated, Danny

It is possible to take a surge through the phone line. That kind of surge is more likely to happen when there are thunderstorms in the area. I had that happen about 15 years ago. In my case a chip on the modem actually exploded when lightening struck just outside of the apartment. Are thunderstorms what caused your power to go out in the first place? Try reloading the drivers for the internal modem, from scratch. If that doesn't work, you can take it in and get a repair estimate (if not under warranty they will probably charge for the estimate.) If under warranty and you had it plugged into the phone line with thunderstorms nearby, then the warranty is probably void. Labor at repair shops can go anywhere from $20 per hour, up to about $150 per hour depending upon the shop and your locality. Parts are almost always extra.

Try doing a system restore from before the power surge. This may restore the backup of any system files that may have been damaged by the surge, assuming your modem was not damaged. You also may want to check the modem MFR website for an updated XP driver, which may also help with the slow connection. If you do not have any restore points, you could also try running sfc/ scannow.