networking issues

[Plain Old Jane]

sup bitches. i needs me some help, in return, i offer porn and i promise to come back and post some. conversely, if said offer is not sweet enough, ill promise to stay away for another year.
discuss amongst yourselves the offer you will accept.
regardless, i hope you'll help me, otherwise, ill set the decagon server on fire again.

heres my ish.

My computer, a behemoth i built a bit over a year ago is having problems contacting the router, it says it has limited or no connectivity. upon attempting to repair, it states it cant renew the ip.

background: the router is a DI-604, d-link router. my pc connects via ethernet through the motherboard. for the last 976398763 months, its been peachy. then all of a sudden, after the first restart after a windows patch. it freezes after i leave it on all night. (leaving it on all night isnt new)
i check it in the morning and hold the power til it shuts off (also not new), and git to class. when i come back i turn it on and i have my current problem.

ive tried, switching ports on my machine and the router, rebooting, recycling, releasing, renewing, reseting the router, manually seting the dns stuff (later i set everything back to auto) uninstalling the windows patches, reinstalling the patches, using the winsockxpfix, lspfix, and kicking it. Im at a loss. i dont know what is wrong.

Im going to attempt to get on the network through a knoppix shell after a shower, but id appreciate any help you can give on this.