IP Address 169.x and 255.x

Hey

I am currently on spring break and volunteering to load XP Pro on like 32 HP laptops. So once I have XP loaded, I have to connect to the internet to download all the updates. So thats no problem for the first 10 laptops. Well suddenly (and randomly) two laptops refuse to connect because of an invalid IP address (0.0.0.0), so I clicked repair. Well it just gives me a 169.xxx.xxx.xx and 255.xxx.xxx.xx address. Now I have dealt with this issue before, and took the typical actions to fix. Tried an ipconfig /release and /renew, tried deleting the Winsock folders in regedit, and also downloaded the two fixes on this site that are suppossed to work, but they just assign the 169 and 255 numbers. I have also tried to unistall the adapter for the ethernet card and reinstall it, no luck.

So I just figured that I would try a different port, that didn't work. And now when I try and go on to another laptop, it gives me the same problem. I am getting nowhere.

Its gotten real frusterating and all.

By the way, these are older laptops, so yes, they do have both a modem and an ethernet built into the side.

Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Brian

 

In case you were wondering about specs:

HP Omnibook 6000
Pentium III Processor
Around 384 Mbs of Ram each
Around 20 Gigs Hard Drive
Just installed Win XP Pro

The ethernet is built into each of the laptops. They are 3 Com Mini Ethernet Adapters...and I have already tried downloading the latest drivers...but that does not work.

Thanks for any help!

 

you cant use a static ip?

 

How are these connecting to the net?

If they are going through a host machine, you need to ensure that the OS loaded allows more than 10 connections at a time.

XP Proa nd 2K Pro do not.

 

If connecting through a Server with DHCP, you need to make sure you have enough addy's in your IP Pool... If not, even though you aren't using the PC's their IP Leases are still good. So it may not be willing to Assign any More IP Addresses therefore prompting your PC's to give themself Hardware Default IPs.

 

I'm pretty sure its none of those...

You see I just brought one of the already updated laptops out and was able to connect to a correct IP Address after trying the repair feature (this already has SP2, these others do not). So then I switched connections but recieved the same results.

I am going to try and download SP2 and burn it on a disk to load on these other laptops and see if that helps because I know that SP2's TCP/IP repair feature is supposively better than the default XP feature. Maybe that will help...I'll let you know.

Oh, and I did try a static IP, but that got me no where.

Thanks for the responses!

Brian