Vista - Wired Network Connection Issue

Howdy all.

I'll start by describing my current setup..

Vista Home Premium computer w/ Linksys WRT54GL router (this computer is wired)
1 Vista Ultimate Wireless Laptop
1 Vista HP Wireless Laptop
1 Windows XP Pro Wireless Laptop
1 Vista Ult. / Win 7 Pro Wireless Desktop

I have a Windows XP Pro machine I'm trying to wire into the router. I know the NIC and ethernet chord are good as I tested them with ICS w/ my 7 machine -- connected fine.

When I plug the cable into my router, however, the following occurs:

"Acquiring Network Address . . . " for about two seconds
"Disconnected (w/ the red X)" for about two seconds
"Acquiring Network Address . . . " for about two seconds
"Disconnected (w/ the red X)" for about two seconds

..and on, and on without end. I'm just wondering what it is I'm doing wrong. I'm not a big networking guy, so any help would be appreciated.

Sounds like a driver issue. Check you device manager for NIC driver error. If no error, update driver. If all else fails, uninstall NIC driver and then reboot, this will install the original driver that came with the system. It could be a bad NIC card as well. Easy to check, pop out old one and put in a new one, driver should load automatically, then plug in cat5e cable.

Also, check for adware, malware, spyware, trojans, worms and virus's. These sometimes can effect your system in a bad way and cause conflicts with hardware and software. Start here first then do the above if issue is not resolved by cleaning the PC from bugs.