Help With Wonky Wireless Hookup

Greetings Geeks -

I have a strange problem. I had a perfectly flawless wireless network setup. It crapped out one day. So when I disconnected it my desktop connection crapped out. It took me hours and hours to get things going on the desktop again network wise. It seems I somehow the cable modem or connection was disabled. I merely had to renable it.

But - every time I try to hook the wireless router up again it disables the network card on my desktop. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how to enable it again. I pretty saavy in most aspects of PC's, except for networking. I then have to blindly fiddle again with the desktop network settings to get it going again.

The wireless router is a Linksys. I ma using Windows XP patched fully, an MS MN-130 network adapter, and a Motorola cable modem. Why in the heck does connecting the router disable the desktop network card?

I know that is a vague explanation but maybe there is a simple solution. If not, I will come back and ask some more specific questions with more specific explanations of things.

Thanks in advance.