I'm trying to fix friend's system: WindowsXP

The problem is that the system never acquires an IP. The icons comes up saying that the "local area" connection is established but status is always "acquiring IP address" The system nevers go any further than that.

1. different Ethernet cards ... nothing
2. different routers ... nothing
3. YES YES... it's set to DHCP
4. tried diferent "connection wizard" setups... nothing
5. it can ping 127.0.0.1

pls help as soon as you can ...