Trying to get my 2nd USB port back

My Compaq Presario 5284 (Windows 98SE) has two USB ports (is port the right word?), but for quite a while, only one at a time works. I think I know why: I believe I deleted one set of drivers at some point, thinking they were duplicates causing conflicts. (Yeah, I know, that was stupid.)

Is there a way to get the second one back?

There are a couple of other things missing or not working--I don't know if they might be related:

1) When I try to connect to the modem, I get a "Can't Open the Port" message. (I'm trying to fix that one by following instructions I found on this forum.)

2) When I set up my DSL modem, I had to use USB because it didn't recognize the Ethernet connection. (I haven't begun to try fixing that problem yet, but would like to.)

Thanks!

 

If there was hardware 'missing' or a device missing drivers, it should show in the device manager. Check to see if there are any devices with a yellow exclamation mark. If not, try doing a hardware scan or add hardware and let it check for new hardware to see if it finds anything, once it does and we know the name, we can search for a driver if it doesn't pick it up automatically.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Krazykrl.

There are no exclamation points, and Add Hardware doesn't come up with a second USB root hub instance. In fact, I tried the same method suggested elsewhere for fixing a "Can't Open the Port" message regarding a modem: I deleted all the USB drivers and drivers for USB devices, restarted in Safe Mode, then restarted normal so that Windows found and reinstalled things. I still ended up with just the one USB root hub and the one (all I need, right?) PCI to USB bridge.

I don't know if this is related in any way, but I've also been having trouble getting to the CMOS/BIOS setup. F10 is the normal key for it on that machine. I've also tried Esc, F2, F12, maybe F11. It still boots to Windows. I know I had that problem when I was using a USB keyboard for a while, which wasn't recognized until I got into Windows. But I've got a PS/2 keyboard on it now. And I know it's not the same problem as before, because F8 still gets me to Safe Mode. To get to Setup, I have to use a bootable floppy.

 

Specific info on the hardware--it's a...

VIA VT83C572/VT82C586 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller.