[Solved] E4200v2 router assigning arbitrary ip addresses to wired peripherals

Looking for some advice or information concerning a problem I have encountered with a Cisco E4200v2 router (with current firmware update) which is just over three months old. The other day my internet connection (cable "always on" ) hiccuped a couple of time (which is not unusual for this area). However, when the service finally restored itself, I lost a PC and printer from my home network, and the ability to connect to the internet with the wired PC. Outages like this are normal in this area and have not had an issue like this before. Both were "wired" via (CAT 5e) cables. The three PC's that were connected via wi-fi were not affected. We switched CAT 5e cables several times with not changed in status. The wired printer and PC were assigned arbitrary ip addresses in the 16X.XXX etc. range. I think that has to do with not being able to communicate with the DHCP server? However, we connected one of the laptops via a CAT 5e cable directly to the router, and it too was assigned an arbitrary ip address. I finally reverted to my old router (LINKSYS WRT160N), and the issue went away. Is this a known E4200v2 issue? Is there a fix or workaround for this? The "wired" PC and two laptops are Windows 7, and the all-in-one is running Vista.
I can continue using my WRT16N. But hate to think I wasted good money on this new dual band. Have never had any issues before with Linksy/Cisco before.

It's hard to know if this one instance of a problem indicates a real issue with the router, not much in the way of issues with it on any forums that I follow. Do you also have electrical power issues in your area?

I would reset the router to default settings with the reset button and then connect and reset your configuration back to what you were using. I usually give my printers a static or reserved dynamic address, as they seem to have more issues that computers when DHCP goes down for a while.

Thank you for replying. I do have power outages, but not that often. My internet outages are frequent in my area (a lot of construction in surrounding areas). But this is the first time I had IP address issues. I did the reset/reconfigure drill twice. Power down on router and modem etc., and no dice. Re-did about everything twice or more to no avail. (Actually went to old WRT160N which worked fine and back to E4200v2 which failed again with IP addresses) finally went back to WRT160N and still running fine with no issues.

Sorry I reposted this, meant to post reply to you but used wrong submit button

I did verify that we had the most current update on the router, even rolled back the firmware to previous version, with same outcome, then updated again to most current update. Have had interrupts of internet service from ISP before this with no issues with the E4200v2. Just this last drop in service, and bingo, router issues. RMA might be the immediate answer to a fix for this unit. Thanks for the responses.

Best answer selected by ddowlingsr.