error message help!

[NinjaChipmunk]

ok, dp was on laptop earlier and is now in bed so i can't ask him. it all seems to be working ok but it keeps popping up with
'windows - system error there is an IP address conflict with another system on the network'
does anyone have a clue what this means? do i need to be switching the laptop off and backing slowly away?

It means that another computer (or related device) on the network is using the same network (IP) address. Nothing to panic about.

thanks, it seems to have just disappeared of its own accord now, so i'll not mention it to dp......

I thought it might. I would guess the allocation of IP addresses got out of sync for some reason and another device on the network was using the same address for a while. The problem probably resolved itself when one of the conflicting devices got a new address allocation.