Cannot get a local IP from D-LINK router or access the net

I have a D-Link 4 port router that is hooked up to a cable modem via the wan port.  I have 2 computers plugged in, a windows vista machine on port 1 of the router(works perfectly with dhcp and internet) and a windows xp machine that i added on port 2 of the router.  There is a green light on port 2 of the router and the back of the windows xp machine indicating it may not be the network cable that is bad.  After numerous reboots of the router and the win xp machine, the xp machine continues to obtain an autoconfiguation IP address 169.x.x.x  the release command works yielding a 0.0.0.0 but the renew command hangs for minutes and then comes back with an autoconfiguration IP.  I cannot ping or http to the router address of 192.168.0.1 and cannot even see the vista machine in my network places.  The Network settings for TCP/IP are set to "obtain IP and DNS settings automatically" and the d-link router configuration is set to issue more then 1 ip address.  This same windows machine worked perfectly in port 2 using a shorter network cable, the only difference now is that we have moved it farther away and therefore replaced it with a longer cable.  This longer cable does function perfectly with another router and computer but was crimped using crimping tools(ie: not factory made).  I have a suspicion it might be the cable but cannot test that same cable on a different computer and router anymore as it has now been fished behind drywal and would be difficult to remove.  Are there any settings I could try on the win xp machine? and has anyone here got a green light on a router and a computer with a faulty rj-45 cable?  Also when i unplug and plug in the cable during on-time, windows correctly detects, "network cable has been plugged in / un plugged".