ip address conflict with another system on the network

[speedhools]

Hi all,
I'm trying to hook a friends laptop(XP Media Center Edition) to my home lan, att/yahoo dsl, connected directly to the modem(no router), but i get no connectivity. He's tried connecting it to a comcast cable couple of months ago with the same results. Here's what I get when I connect the cable( from the modem directly to the PC ):
the system is acquiring network address, a minute later the system throws this error in the taskbar: "there is an ip address conflict with another system on the network"
I checked the system logs and I found 2 errors - event Tcpip 4198 and event Netbt 4307. When I ran the cmd/ ipconfig, it returns 0.0.0.0. I tried ipconfig /renew with no luck. I disabled the wireless adapter so its not causing any conflicts. I also tried hard-rebooting the modem which didn't help. There is no shared printers, faxes or cameras on the network either. There is no other device with this IP. I know that tcp/ip are configured correctly because both my own desktop and laptop can connect to the net.
What could be the problem and how do I resolve it? Any setting/configs I need to look into? Thanks anyone for your help and reply.

[Thrax]

So when the unit is directly connected to the modem, regardless of it being ADSL or Cable, it does not pull an IP address correctly?

[speedhools]

So when the unit is directly connected to the modem, regardless of it being ADSL or Cable, it does not pull an IP address correctly?
yep

[speedhools]

Oh, one more thing, when I helped my friend with the initial setup and windows updates in November 06, we did at my house using the same LAN. So my guess is that either him or his wife messed something in the system afterwards.

[Thrax]

Is the network card configured to use a static IP address?

To check this, open the network card's properties, then click properties on "TCP/IP."

[speedhools]

Thrax, many thanks for your help! There was some static ip assigned to it, changed it to auto and bam - it is back online now! Cheers (",)

[Thrax]

Thanks for stopping in on Icrontic. Stick around. :)