Laptops sometimes can't connect to domain

[Guest]

G'day all,

I have a small classroom domain with a W2K Server acting as DC. All 6
clients are Toshiba laptops running XP Pro. I have had to install XP on these
machines from scratch rather than using the recovery disks. I got all the
latest drivers from the Toshiba web site and Device manager tells me that all
devices are working properly. Now I find that these machines *sometimes* wont
connect to the domain. For the times that they don't connect; they do not
usually give an error message at logon but sometimes they do. Even when no
error message is given, they will still have Internet connections but not be
able to see any of the other computers on the network. Additionally, when I
go into the System applet in control panel and go to the Computer Name tab,
the computer name and domain name are greyed out and the is a message telling
me that the computer cannot connect to the domain. If this was a continual
problem would be one thing but when it happens probably one time out of three
boots it is really annoying. And really difficult to get answers about.

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

G'day all,

I have a small classroom domain with a W2K Server acting as DC. All 6
clients are Toshiba laptops running XP Pro. I have had to install XP
on these machines from scratch rather than using the recovery disks.
I got all the latest drivers from the Toshiba web site and Device
manager tells me that all devices are working properly. Now I find
that these machines *sometimes* wont connect to the domain. For the
times that they don't connect; they do not usually give an error
message at logon but sometimes they do. Even when no error message is
given, they will still have Internet connections but not be able to
see any of the other computers on the network. Additionally, when I
go into the System applet in control panel and go to the Computer
Name tab, the computer name and domain name are greyed out and the is
a message telling me that the computer cannot connect to the domain.
If this was a continual problem would be one thing but when it
happens probably one time out of three boots it is really annoying.
And really difficult to get answers about.

Any help greatly appreciated

1. What's the exact text of the error message?
2. XP clients all running SP2 and critical patches?
3. When you're trying to check out the computer name/etc are you logged in
as an admin?
4. AD DNS set up properly? (all servers and workstations must specify *only*
the internal AD-integrated DNS server's IP address in their network
settings. The AD-integrated DNS server should be set up with forwarders to
your ISP's DNS servers for external resolution and/or use root hints. See
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;825036 for more info.)
5. No users have admin rights at all on the workstations, right?
6. Not sure why you mentioned installing XP Pro from scratch - if they
shipped with XP Pro, why did you need to reinstall at all? Or why didn't you
use the recovery disks - as I presume they contain XP Pro? Perhaps not
relevant, but I'm curious.