HEEEELP: WinXP machine won't join domain

[G Couture]

This machine, which controls the projector in our conference room, has been
working perfectly well since its installation. One morning it decided it
won't see the network anymore. I tried every trick in my sleeve, but the
damn thing had decided it won't work. Finally, I pulled it out of the
domain, renamed it, and tried to rejoin. No chance. I even changed the
network card. No change. No conflicts are reported anywhere, the main switch
does see the PC, and another computer plugged on that outlet works
perfectly.

I noticed though, I can't ping the machine from the server or vice-versa
(which is why I first thought it was NIC failure). However, when I assign a
static address to it, then I can ping both ways. I created a reservation in
the DHCP server. When I tried rejoining, the administrator passwork apeared
(which is as far as I could get). This time I got a different message.

Here are the messages I got:

Using dynamic address: DNS_ERROR_NO_DNS (the help gibberish tells that
_ldap._tcp.dc._nsdc.mydomaincom is not available)

Using static adress: the network path cannot be found

I finally noticed that the DHCP client service on the stubborn machine doesn
not start. If I try starting it manually, it says it can't start because a
dependency failed.

Does anyone have a suggestion, I'm running out of time and my last option
will be to rebuild the machine from scratch.

G Couture
Network Admin