Done it!
Sandra was right about the USBs not being enabled in BIOS
so once I got flying with BB I was in a better position to sort the rest out. Downloaded several modem drivers from
www.driverguide.com, and luckily one of them worked, so both problems solved in a matter of minutes in the end, after spending ages on it last night. Obviously had to bung on IE6 (had CD), Norton AV & Firewall, and get the Windows Updates, but all up and running now, and I didn't need to break open the case (lol Tony).
Thanks for the help guys!