Can't Uninstall Network Adapters Normally`

Hi,

I'm getting an error when I try to remove my network adapters in device
manager:
"this device can not be uninstalled as it may be required to boot the
computer".
The reason I'm trying to remove the instances of the hardware is because
somehow XP has decided there are four copies of the same hardware, and it's
getting confused (there is only the one card). This network card used to
work with XP, but it seems like the multiple instances are causing resource
conflicts, even though they are disabled.

What I've tried:

-Removing the hardware. Re-powering several times. It's still there.
-Checking bios to make sure there's no reference to network card. No
reference.
-Doing a 'repair' on the installation with hardware out hoping it would
straighten itself out. Still broken.
-trying to install a different network card hoping this would cause XP to
take stock of it's hardware configuration. This doesn't work because the
extra network cards are causing resource conflicts, even though they are
disabled.

This seems like a MAJOR XP bug. I've seen other posts about this problem
around some other forums, but never any solutions to the problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!