Wired & Wireless NICs will not accept IP from routers

hi

What kind of router is it and DHCP server is really enabled on the router?
Pls try to change the Ethernet Cable.
Have you tried to access other machine to this router and you get an IP from this router?

BTW what happens, if you setup a fix IP address on your XP, then can you ping the router?

If it's not working when network configuration is set manually it sounds like you're not on the same physical network.
Is the same happening if you plug the cable directly from router to computer?

anoym:  router is fine as other PCs are working on this router and those computers are accepting the DHCP IP assignments.  The Vostro laptop was on its own router but had nothing to compare to and wanted to plug it into a known "good" router.  Seems obvious after plugging it into the "good" router and the problem persisted that iit is not a router issue.

lejim:  See additional notes to anoym above.   ... and yes, as I mentioned in original description, it is the same for both the wired and wireless Network adapters.

Try and download Winsock XP fix 1.2 on another computer and put it on a flash drive and take it to the troubled laptop.  Run the Winsock Fix and let it reboot your computer and see if that fixes the problem.

Winsock XP Fix:
http://majorgeeks.com/WinSock_XP_Fix_d4372.html

If this doesn't fix your problem, then I suggest you try using combofix to scan deeper for malware that may be at the route of the problem

Combofix:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/combofix

Just save it to your computer(don't click run) and then open it after it's been saved.  Then follow the steps.

Good Luck HTH.

HI,
try to turn off the firewall on the DELL Vostro to see if it helps. If yea, try to turn it back on and set up the ICMP echo request to allow (probably also other types of ICMP communication as well). Some routers behave exactly like you described, when the device (your computer) is not responding to the ICMP requests.

Hope it can help.

Is the wired NIC on XP setuped for DHCP (TCP/IP properties) and enabled?
Pls try to disable wireless NIC.
Have you tried "Repair" option on wired NIC?

What happens, if you setup a fix IP address on your wired NIC, can you ping the router?

169.254.***.*** is the subnet reserved by microsoft for when no DHCP server is detected.  So it is acting as though the DHCP is not working or it is not on the smae physical network.  

Have ou checked the link led on the NIC and the router port to see if there is activity, or tried swapping out the cable for a known good cable.

Depending on the lease time configured, the DHCP server may have stopped, and the lease on the other PCs not yet expired.  Have to tried a release and renew from one of the other PC's to see if the DHCP server is actually working?

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Otherwise to test the nic, I would suggest as anoym says, disable wireless, and try a fixed ip in the same subnet as your router and see if they can talk then.  I would try an IP address of 192.168.0.99.

kadafitcd: - An interesting outcome to your suggestion to try Winsock Fix.  It does allow the NIC to accept the assigned I.P. address  and Mask - but there is still does no throughput.   And - if the NIC is disabled / enabled, it goes back to using the 169.254.26.999 / 255.255.0.0.  
I also downloaded and ran the Combofix - it did not find any malware or problems.

celazkon: I turned off the Firewall - no help.  

anoym:  Yes, NICs are both setup correctly in TCPIP with DHCP enabled.
I disabled the wireless NIC - no change.  
I tried the "Repair" option on the wired NIC - no change.  
I set a static IP address on wired NIC - I can ping the router successfully, but it says "Pinging oŸ with 32 bytes of data:"  .... says  "oŸ"  instead of router IP.... very weird!

helpnet: Link light on router lights up when plugged into NIC and blinks like there is activity.  Cable is definitely good.
I tried ipconfig /release - /renew... on /renew command, got this error message: "An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection: The requested service provider could not be loaded or initialized."

I disabled the wireless NIC - and set the static IP and mask - and got the reported results when pinging the router.  

I will run Dell diagnostics on both NICs and see what comes back.

BTW is DHCP service really enabled on the wireless router and DHCP client started as service (automatic) on your XP?

From the error you get seems like there a problem with DHCP client service on your computer. Try to check the DHCP client service if its started and set up to automatic startup type. Also try to install the SP3 for XP if not allready installed. If this doesn't help, try to check the registry settings for the DHCP client service (HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCP) and if possible, compare it to another working computer. You could also export the registry settings from the working machine, delete the registry key on your laptop and import the reg file from working computer. After this don't forget to restart the DHCP service.
Hope it can help.

Also, I just realized, there can be some problem related to VPN software. Are you using some kind of VPN soft?

Great news, pls mark helpfull answers.