First off, you are replying to a year old thread. The answers from then may be different from now. In the future if you see 2010 dates, you might get better response if you start a new thread.
I just ran into this with a laptop. After making sure it had the LabVIEW update
http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2261
and the Utilities update
http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2262
here is what worked for me:
1. Make sure all NICs but the one wired to the cRIO are Disabled - even wireless NICs.
2. Wire to the cRIO through a router - I wired through the FRC D-Link. This seems to be the most important step. I could never get it to work otherwise. We don't exactly know why this is yet.
3. If you get the cRIO into a state where step 2 doesn't work, turn on the SAFE MODE switch on the cRIO and reboot it.
4. Run the cRIO imaging tool. If the cRIO is in SAFE MODE, the imaging tool will prompt what to do - when to turn off SAFE MODE etc.