Computer Dissappears from AD

[Guest Robert Jacobs]

I hope that someone has run into this problem before...

 

I have been asked to post this here:

 

Our company has a large number of laptop computers (which seem to be

the only machines affected for now) that are used outside of the

office. The users logon to their computers using a cached domain

username and password.

 

 

The problem....

All of a sudden (and yes, I do mean all of a sudden) when they

attempt

to logon to their machine they get the error message "The system

cannot log you on now because the domain <domain name> is not

available". I have seen this many many times, so it didn't concern

me

to begin with. The part that concerned me is when I look in Active

Directory to see if their computer is still listed...IT ISN'T!!!!

When I tried to logon to the macine using the local admin username

and

password (and I am 100 percent SURE that it is the correct username

and password) and change the "Log on to" to the local machine (and I

am 100 percent SURE that I am selecting the correct location), it

tells me the password doesn't match the account.

 

 

I experienced this EXACT same problem about a year and a half ago

while working for a different company. It happened on 3 or 4

computers then (randomly, on different days) and it has now occured

twice here (randomly, on different days), all with the EXACT same

results. Computer missing from AD and local admin password doesn't

work. I have resolved the issue by cracking the local admin password

and dis-joining the computer from the domain, then re-joining the

computer to the domain. But I need to know why this is happening

BEFORE it happens again. Having users drive 5 hours to me so I can

crack their password isn't acceptable!

 

 

Thank you very very much for any help you may be able to provide!!!!