Connectivity issues

Hello, first time poster long time reader here...searched and couldn't find an answer..

About three years ago I build my parents an XP desktop with an old 1.3 p4 blah blah, worked great, they had AOL (ugh) for years but recently when they moved they switched to a cable broadband (Comcast). They had problems switching windows over to the cable connection so at my reccomendation they just created a new user for the new connection. That helped but they've been complaining about the machine being slow and getting dropped ever since. Well I finally took it home and when I plugged it into my router sure enough after about 5 minutes the connection failed. I uninstalled everything AOL related, removed the modem and reset the connection. Same problem. I've tried everything (including the ethernet driver) short of re-installing XP which is next unless anyone thinks this could be a hardware issue. Would you just buy a new ethernet card before wiping the hard-drive?

Thanks in advance,
Jesse

 

Using wired or wireless?

 

Hard wired. My folks connect directly to the modem, I'm going through a router. Same problem either way.