I still don't have a reason why my ip address never renewed, but I did a system restore as a last resort before taking it in for repair and it worked!  
HI.  I'm having difficulty getting an internet connection through my wireless.  My sis-in-law thought she would be nice and close my laptop without shutting it off first, putting it in sleep mode.  When I went to open it up, I no longer had a connection.  I tried my usual restart, which usually fixes it, but not this time.  I have tried to repair the connection, ipconfig/release /renew, tested winsock, unplugged/shut down everything for several minutes.  It always gets stuck on renewing the ip address.   This is what I see when I do ipconfig in the cmd box and the wireless card is searching. no connection-specific dns suffixip address  0.0.0.0subnet mask 0.0.0.0no default gateway If I try to repair, I get this message once it stops seraching: windows could not finish repairing the prob because the following action cannot be completedrenewing your ip addressfor assistance contact the person who manages your network Now, I have another wireless in my house, and it's working just fine.  I can connect the laptop to a wire and it's fine.  Just not the wireless.  I'm completely stumped.  I have xp pro, service pack 3, did not install anything new yesterday.
cannot renew ip address