WNCE2001 Universal WiFi adapter randomly changes settings

We have four of these in our environment. Three of them work fine. One of them will periodically decide to independently change its settings from "use static IP" to "get address from router." When this happens, it also becomes a DHCP server and invariably issues an address to the boss's laptop. The laptop then of course can't get online or to any network resources and keeps that address until the adapter's settings are changed back to static. Why does this setting keep changing in the first place?