Network cable unplugged

I got my asus w7j exactly a week ago. By th way, very very happy with it.
I reinstalled windows on the same day I got it, set everything up and everything worked perfectly for a week.
I had it connected to my wired network and everything worked great.

Starting today, all of a sudden I started getting "network cable unplugged" for my LAN connection and losing my connection, but I only lose my connection on my laptop. It doesn't randomly drop either, it just won't connect. Well I have tried everything. I tested the cable in my desktop, worked fine. I tried my desktop cable in my laptop, same "network cable unplugged" error. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the NIC drivers off the ASUS site and the Realtex site. I searched google and tried settings in my router like disabling UnUP and changing the link speed and duplex mode. nothing has worked.
I can ping localhost with a reply.
for ipconfig it just say media disconnected.

so the info:

D-Link DI-704UP router
Realtek RTL8168/8111 NIC
XP Pro on laptop, my desktop, and my sisters laptop and XP home on my dad's desktop.
I can pick up wireless networks and I have tried with to connect through LAN with wireless off.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have been at this for a few hours now and just can not think of anything else to do short of bringing it back and replacing the NIC. I don't want to lose sleep on this.

Thanks alot

 

Did you check for spyware / malware?

 

Yeah I did. It's back up now. Hopefully it won't happen too often. thanks for the reply. Strange.

 

were you on battery? sometimes, your NIC will have a power saving feature that disables it on battery.