IP issues - fine on one machine not on another

[kendon]

Started having intermittent issues from Friday on my main machine - losing connection, and getting a 169. IP. Called technical support who have arranged an engineer visit for Monday. If I disabled the connection in network connections and then re-enabled it this was resolving the problem, sometimes.

Decided today to hook up to the wife's machine with the cable modem, picked up an IP straight away and I'm typing this message on her machine now.

Tech support seemed to think there is a fault with the SACM, my typing this message seems to suggest that there is an issue somewhere on my machine rather than with the modem.

So, my question is, what would cause my machine to not resolve an IP address. Trying ipconfig /renew results in a "DHCP server could not be resolved. The process timed out". Obviously the DHCP can be found as the wife's machine picked up the IP within 20-30 seconds.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

The OS on both is WinXP Professional.

[Stuartbe]

Do you have or have you ever had zone alrm running on this pc ?

Sometimes it leaves its engine running when the app is un-installed.

[kendon]

No, on my machine (the one that isn't working) I've just added a new hard drive, formattted and fresh windows install.

The wife's machine has the broadjump software installed, didn't bother with mine - would this be causing issues ?

[Stuartbe]

Nope... You dont need the broadjump software to connect.

It may be that the mack address is locked to your wifes pc. Make sure that you power down the cable modem for about 10 mins then power up. Once its settled power up your pc.

See if this helps....

[BBKing]

Don't need 10 minutes, a quick power off and on does the trick. Are you using Ethernet or USB?

If Ethernet, check the PC end is set to the correct speed, if USB, see about changing to Ethernet, it's much better.