why does windows assign 169.254.55.22

I’m working on a friends machine; WinXP with SP2( i cringe),windows has assigned the non routable address of 169.254.55.22 . I’ve done the ipconfig /release but when you try to renew it comes back witth an error stating theres limited access. what’s that about and how do I resolve the origional problem? thanks in advance.

Bill Weinstein