What's the service ID tag?

Is it the same as the MAC address? If so, you absolutely can't have two devices on an Ethernet with the same MAC. You may be able to edit it from within Windows.

If it's just something for internal book keeping, then it shouldn't matter to the network?

I think the service tag is the ID of the hardware. The computer has also had the same thing used for the computer name. All of the computers have the name xxxxx_yyyyyyyyy where xxxxx is a code for the practice and the same, and yyyyyyyyy is the ID of the computer, found on the case, in the BIOS and in windows. I suspect changing the computer name in Windows wasn't enough. The machines are Dell Optiplexes.

I had a thought as I was driving home: everything was fine when I first set up the computer and let it automatically connect to the network. I started having problems when I tried to get it on to the same DNS and IP range as the other computers. Tomorrow, I'll try letting it go back to automatic settings and see if that works before any further faffing around in the Active Directory/computer names.

Okay so I deleted both computers from the Active Directory. I tried to put the problem computer back onto automatic settings and that's running into problems. I then tried to get the boss's computer up and it's running into the same problems with "windows cannot connect to the domain, either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable".

I am doing something wrong when adding a computer into the active directory and I'm not sure what. Any ideas?

Gah! I've made things worse!

After a google, I decided to try to remove the computer from the domain and into a local workgroup. The plan was remove it from the domain, restart and then rejoin it to the domain. Since rebooting it, I've not been able to log on to the computer: "the system could not log you on. Make sure your username and domain are correct, then type your password again."

You probably need a valid login for the local machine; You were using a domain login before. Is there a standard local Administrator password you use when building new machines? If you're lucky then Administrator with no password might work.

If the PC has the Windows licence on a sticker, then it's worth considering re-installing. Unfortunately, I guess they probably have a corporate licence which you don't know?

It is possible to reset the admin account using a Linux disk such as EBCD if it comes to that. I've not used it for years, but it looks like it's still an active project:

http://www.prime-expert.com/articles/b1 ... change.php

I ended up ringing the helpdesk. My old boss doesn't have the username/password to hand. The IT helpdesk couldn't supply an admin username/password (whether it's because I'm ringing over the telephone, or whether they really don't have one I'm unsure).

I suspect I'll get a bollocking for screwing up two computers (I took both computers off the domain simultaneously to speed things up).

Why not give EBCD a go. last time I used it, it was pretty easy - although that was on an XP machine. You boot from the CD or USB stick, and there's a menu with various tools on. One of them was to reset the Administrator password to blank. If it doesn't work then you've lost nothing except the time.

Good luck, whatever you decide. It sounds like a nightmare trying to maintain a network of computers with one arm tied behind your back...

It is. What peeves me off the most is that I deliberately didn't bother learning about networks when I was a spotty teen because I didn't think I'd need to deal with them! The PCT have set up the computers in some messed up way which means things didn't work. My boss rectified this and set it all up so it did work. The problem is that when the engineers come out, they fix the computer and don't bother to check the impact on the rest of the network.

What I would love is for the surgery to shut down for a week and I could tinker with everything and get it up running properly. I mean who the fudge puts security cameras into a DMZ?!?!

Will try the ebc. The machines are all XP and the server is 2003 I think. I couldn't see a safe mode option to restore to last known configuration anywhere. In all honesty, my main concern is accessing my boss's files so they're backed up. I've no idea whether the backup systems also back up the desktop files. I know they back up the medical files and accountancy stuff.

You should have no problem getting the current local admin password for an XP machine with 0phcrack
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/
Weren't you prompted for a password of an account that had local admins when you removed it from the domain anyway?

After you've sorted that, you should probably rename the computers before rejoining them to the domain. Create an account for each in AD, take care to put it in the same container that your other desktops are in. If you just let the computers decide for themselves where to dump their accounts, they will normally go to the wrong place and you will get Group Policy problems.

It sounds though as if your DNS is broken quite badly. When you have the automatically acquire network settings enabled, what are you picking up for the DNS server? Presumably it ought to be your domain controller?


It's normal to put security cameras into DMZ or an orphaned VLAN btw, it's more secure that way.

I gave it a bash on my home computer. It found the passwords for all of the accounts except the Administrator account.

Some good news and not-so-good news. Ophcrack found the admin password within about five mins. The problem is that it won't let me rename without joining the domain. Gah!

Fingers crossed it looks like it all works.

Initially wouldn't let me rename as the "network path was not found".
After ipconfig /flushdns and /registerdns, it let me change the domain (having already added the computer to the server).
On reboot, it then stalled at the log in when I selected the server domain witch "please wait white the domain list is created".
A quick three fingered salute and I logged in via "username@servername.local" which got me on and I went into regedit to change the default domain to the servername.

Now seems to work although everything's a tad slower than it used to be and the boss still can't get her emails up (not sure if this is a problem at the PCT end). The medical programs still work, albeit sluggish - windows complains of low virtual memory. This was never a problem before, so don't know what's different.

How many domain controllers do you have on your local network? Are you aware of any old servers being decommissioned at any point?

What happened is your computer queried the DNS servers that it got via DHCP for DNS SRV records that point it to the local domain controller for login. Although it apparently received the records, it wasn't super happy with what it got. That in itself is nothing much to worry about, they do that a lot on domain joins, and I always do pretty much what you did to make it go away.

But it might be worth double checking that your DHCP is handing out only appropriate DNS servers, and that your DCs are in good health. DCDiag should get you the info on that http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/libr ... 10%29.aspx

Read about dcdiag and was going to use it when I stumbled across some solutions on microsoft's technet courtesy of google. Will try to get the second computer up and running in a bit then will see if I can run dcdiag.