I am having the same problem under xp home sp3.
Fax support has been uninstalled and I cannot re-install it.

"John Miller" wrote:

> I recently applied SP3 to my WinXP Pro installation, and shortly afterwards
> discovered that I no longer had fax support. I can't say with any certainty
> that SP3 broke it; only that I noticed the problem after applying SP3.
>
> When I run the Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel and select
> Windows Components, I check the fax support box and run through the
> installation. It appears to succeed, but the fax service is then listed as
> "stopping" and "disabled", and no fax printer is installed. When I re-run
> the CP applet, the fax support box is still unchecked, indicating that the
> installation didn't succeed. Running through the installation again doesn't
> change things.
>
> I've run SFC to assure that my basic OS files are intact. My modem driver
> is the latest version, and Device Manager indicates that the device (USR
> 5686E external) is working properly.
>
> I've found one other user on MS's TechNet forums who has this same problem,
> but he hasn't yet applied SP3. When I contacted MS, they directed me to
> their pay-for-help line.
>
> I've tried brutally removing any vestiges of fax support with the command:
>
> rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection
> %windir%\INF\fxsocm.inf,Fax.Uninstall
>
> then re-installing fax support, but again, no change in the end result.
>
> I'd much appreciate any help on this.
>
> Thanks.
>
> - John
>
>
>