Please, any ideas?
asus p5n32-e sli motherboard with two onboard NICs
"nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (MCP55PXE) - Gigabit LAN Controller (PHY: Marvell 88E1116) PCI "
cable modem, linksys router
laptop always works (ethernet via devolo mains plug setup to router)
desktop (this) used to work fine with either nic (standard ethernet in one, devolo mains plug in other)
Now desktop nics behaving badly:
With automatic ip they get 169.1etc, and limited or no connectivity, or network cable unplugged, or just plain sullenness.
With manual config they get 192.168.whatever-I-set as an ip address, but no lease from the router (default gateway, 192.168.1.1, dhcp enabled), packets are sent but none received.
However, plug the ethernet cable into a Belkin USB ethernet adaptor and the connection is just fine (that's how I'm sending this).
I have, in an effort to solve this, (in no particular order of desperation), formatted the hd and reinstalled xp pro basic / sp 2 / sp 3
run the asus motherboard disk to reinstall drivers
installed latest network drivers from nvidia site over those
followed every bit of advice I can find on the web about releasing ip, killing the stack, swapping cables around, nailing horseshoes over the door, .....

Is it possible that both nics have got fried somehow to the point where they will send but not receive packets? They show orange (?red) light on all the time, disabled or not.

veryfrazzled