WinXP Host does NOT start any network card driver

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I had to uninstall vmware workstation from my WinXP host...
something went wrong and in the middle of uninstallation I had to reboot the PC. Now I've got WinXP which doesn't want to load any network card device driver : I've tried to install a new network card, same story : network driver can't load (error 31). I've tried also to install and reuninstall vmware : nothing's changed. The XP boot log says that network driver cards are loaded but from the device manager network card driver is still in error (error 31) cannot load the driver). Seems like there is something written somewhere to disable network card loading.

Any network card can't load it's driver. There must be something in the registry or a
depending driver missing : but which one ?

Is anyone having a same BAD experience ?