desktops not finding domain during morning boot

[ixy]

I've replaced several towers for users in a remote site but one or two of them get a problem authenticating during the morning boot. Towers are XPsp2 on a 2003 AD domain. I've checked the event logs on one and see this:

Your computer has automatically configured the ip address etc IP is in the 169.x.x.x range. I guess thats telling me it cant find a DHCP server (which is present and working well). Thanks for any comments.

[nitroshift]

The problem lies with the link between the pc's and the server. How are they connected?