How many PC's on the LAN and what is the network setup?

Also, try swapping out the Ethernet cable on this machine with a known good one to see what happens.  Maybe you have a bad cable.  As the previous poster posted can you explain more about the network?

There are about 50 pc's on the LAN, all plug into either Cisco or HP switches. All log onto a Windows 2000 Server domain that also provides DHCP. However, this particular PC was not setup to log onto the domain; just contacted the DHCP server for IP info, and still had the same problem. I have one other user (with the same exact Dell model) having the same problem. It hasn't happened to anyone else. I figured it was the driver causing the problem, but I've tried as many drivers as I can find on the web, and none have helped.

bump

Is there a group policy setting somewhere that is not allowing non-domain members to obtain an address?

when the OS boots, the NIC doesn't grab a DHCP address for atleast 30 seconds or so after logging into windows

XP resets the adapter when it starts. If the switch port that the 2400 is connected to has spanning tree enabled, that causes the spanning tree algorithm to hold the port off for about thirty seconds while the spanning tree is re-established. If it's a Cisco switch, see this article.

Jim

it was indeed a spanning-tree issue. thank you