GATEWAY 3400/WIN2000/NOVELL412

We have recently received Gateway model 3400
PC’s. Running W2K/Novell4.12. The Gateways have SMC 1211 NIC’s. If you power the PC down
and try to log back into the network, the system for gets the NIC settings. If you re-move the NIC, re-install it, the PC then sees
the network. Any ideas. Not all the Gateways have this problem. We have tried other SMC 1211’s, still no change. Thanks.