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Cannot acquire an IP address

C

creamsoda

Junior Member
I'm lost and need some help! Some background:

I have an older computer that had a dead motherboard (Socket 939). I found a used replacement for free (made by PC Partners). I found out that the onboard LAN doesn't work so I picked up a 10/100 NIC card. Windows XP.

I installed the proper Realtek drivers for the card and it is fully recognized by the PC, but cannot connect to the internet. The card is connected directly to a cable modem (no router). What it basically tells me is that it cannot acquire an IP address. On one or two occasions after rebooting, it actually did acquire an ip address and showed as "connected" with IP and gateway info, but I still couldn't access the internet. After I rebooted it could not acquire an IP address again. It is set to automatically obtain an IP address and DNS.

I've now tried two different NIC cards with the same results. I've also tried another computer and that one was able to connect to the internet through the modem, so the modem/cable service is good.

The BIOS in this crap motherboard is limited, and I could find no option to disable the onboard LAN, nor enable a PCI LAN card.

Any thoughts? Thanks for your time!
 
Return the motherboard for a refund. As attached as you may be to your old setup, it isn't worth the value of your time, let alone any money, to pursue it further.

I went through the same thing when an old Socket 939 board of mine died. I found an exact replacement (from another company) that failed on boot up. That's when I gave up, saved the CPU, RAM and vid card for another day and built a new machine.
 
Call your cable company and have them reset your DHCP lease. Your other computer was registered, so the cable company will keep that computer on file and not let you register the other one for some period of time (usually 4 hours). Probably nothing wrong with the NIC.
 
I didn't pay for the motherboard. It was a free replacement for the old one that died. It happens that the onboard LAN doesn't work on the replacement (which happens from time to time) so that's why I bought an NIC. Buying a replacement Socket 939 isn't cheap (though you'd think it would be).

I have a newly built machine, but this old one is just so my kids can surf the web so I'd like to get it up and running for cheap if possible.

The issue isn't with the cable company as I've since hooked up a couple of different machines to the cable and they worked fine.

Any other suggestions?
 
Try powercycling the cable modem. It probably remembers the MAC address of the old NIC. Removing power to the cable modem makes it forget the old MAC address, and it should get the MAC address of the new NIC.
 
after powercycling, open a command prompt and type,

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

this should help you acquire a new ip address.
 
In my area, Time Warner Cable gives you either 3 or 5 devices that it will bridge directly to the cable modem, so you shouldn't have to powercycle the cable modem to get an IP address for a new device plugged into the cable modem. I've done this a few times (today in fact when installing a new computer for a customer).

Worst case scenario, if the computer still refuses to get an ip address, try the following:
open a command prompt (start -> run -> cmd)
type in "netsh i i r r" without quotes and hit enter.
then type "netsh winsock reset catalog" without quotes and hit enter.
Restart the computer. This rebuilds the TCP/IP stack in Windows XP, and I believe Vista and 7 as well. Some computers can be stubborn, and this method usually fixes them right up.
 
hawk82 said:
In my area, Time Warner Cable gives you either 3 or 5 devices that it will bridge directly to the cable modem, so you shouldn't have to powercycle the cable modem to get an IP address for a new device plugged into the cable modem. I've done this a few times (today in fact when installing a new computer for a customer).

Worst case scenario, if the computer still refuses to get an ip address, try the following:
open a command prompt (start -> run -> cmd)
type in "netsh i i r r" without quotes and hit enter.
then type "netsh winsock reset catalog" without quotes and hit enter.
Restart the computer. This rebuilds the TCP/IP stack in Windows XP, and I believe Vista and 7 as well. Some computers can be stubborn, and this method usually fixes them right up.
Click to expand...

Well in my area if i were to move the modem from being connected to router A to router B or even changed pcs i would need to cycle the mode. Time warner as well
 
Well I tried plugging the computer into another cable modem (time warner) at another location and it worked immediately even though that modem is usually connected to a different computer.

This basically means that everything related to the PC is working fine and your above suggestions should work with the original cable modem (comcast) and location. Thanks for the tips and tricks!
 
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