XP Home won’t go on Internet cable modem

I have a XP Home Edition Gateway computer with Mc Affee anti-virus, Office XP, and Corel Office Suite 2002 installed. Until last weekend I was able to go on the internet, but now I can’t get on with this computer. I checked the cable modem with other computers, and they all go on just fine. I get an IP number of 169.254.x.x which indicates that it can’t reach the DHCP server (cable modem) for a number. I heard that MC Afee may be causing the problem. I’m not sure. Can someone please help me to solve this problem?