my pc + ethernet = crash... please help!

hi, ive been trying to sort out the internet for my pc for a while, and now that i have, it crashes whenever the ethernet cable is plugged in, but not if the cable isnt plugged into the router as well! could anyone give me some advise as to why this is happening/how to fix it? thanks

[edit]its not an OS/software problem, ive tried it with WXP and SuSE 10. Also, i know its the ability to access the internet thats causing the problem, because on suse bootup ive oberved the startup and it only dies after eth0(ethernet cable) designates it an IP through dhcp.[/edit]

What about statically assigning an IP?

i think my isp uses dhcp only,at least thats what my router tells me.

Are you behind a router? Can you assign a static IP as if on a private lan? See if it's a problem with the nic being addressed at all or if it's just dhcp.

yes im behind a router, and that particular computer is behind a 4-port switch too as none of my ethernet cables are long enough. would the 4-port be a reason for the computer to die horribly whenever trying to assign an ip?

ok, maybe this is the wrong place to say it, but I had similar problems with an old pc of mine that had a screwed up mobo, whenever I tried to connect to a network, the computer would just totally stall and crash (in windows and linux). I never got it fixed :(

Well, I'm just wondering if it's indeed hardware or just a problem with the dhcp daemon. That's why I was thinking trying to set a static ip on your lan first. Have you checked your logs to see if there are any errors?