Laptop user can't log on offline

[Cameron Biggart]

Hi all

We have a user with a laptop and a domain user account. The Laptop is XP
Pro SP2 and the domain is all Win 2K Server. Up till recently the laptop
user could log on to his laptop using the domain account whether he was
connected to the domain or not> The other day his disk had a hiccup and a
chkdsk/p from the recovery console brought it back to life but since then
he has not been able to log in to his laptop using the domain account if
the laptop isn't physically connected to our network and domain controlers.
Here's what I've noticed/done so far:
1) Used the WinXP SP2 install disk to run a recovery install over his
existing XP SP2 install in case any dll's were hosed by the chkdsk.
2) Used the network identification dialog to remove the laptop from the
domain into a workgroup and back to the domain. This fixed errors in the
event log where trust relationships couldn't be established.

So now he can log on fine as long as a domain controler is visible to the
laptop (i.e. it's plugged into the network). At this stage I'm at a loss
and looking for ideas. My guess is there is a cached security file that
holds domain info on the laptop that isn't being updated to allow for
offline logins. I did find a KB article about a hotfix in SP2 not allowing
fallback if Kerbos authentication failed but I doubt that's the problem as
this machine has always had SP2.

Right now I'm toying with th eidea of running dcpromo and making his laptop
a DC but that seems silly since It wasn't needed before. Does anybody have
any ideas?

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Have you tried deleting and re-creating the user's profile on the laptop
(after backing up any necessary files from the desktop, etc) to see if that
will fix the problem?

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[Cameron Biggart]

Have you tried deleting and re-creating the user's profile on the
laptop (after backing up any necessary files from the desktop, etc) to
see if that will fix the problem?

Unfortunately yes I have tried that. Copies the c:\documents & settings
\<username> folder then went into user manager and deleted the account,
rebooted and recreated it but the account still doesn't seem to be caching
AD information to allow it to log on offline. I actually get the same error
when I try to log on as the domain administrator offline.
Or did you mean actually deleteing the c:\D & S\<username> folder to remove
all old security keys and then copying the files back from the backup dir
'cause I haven't tried that...