That is an interesting problem. Installing another windows version may help but its a complete waste of time really.

DHCP should only be enabled if you have a router which supports it. Go into your network settings and make sure you have it obtain and IP address automatically instead of assigning one and if you must assign one then make sure its not conflicting. Also make sure you have obtain DNS automatically. It should work.

Check your router to see if DHCP is enabled and assign a class to it, for example: 192.168.2.1-100 or whatever. Make sure your subnet mask is correct. I mean it really shouldnt matter but it always helps to assign the right subnetmask.

Check your IE connection settings under lan settings and make sure its all set hte same. Sometimes conflicting addresses and settings will cause major problems. Just take a step back from the problem and go over all the configs, you will see something probably isnt set right. And if the IP address still says conflicting with another then ping the other address and see if it is actually in use.