Win2k3 Log-in Madness!

I just installed Win2k3 Standard on a machine. After the install completed and the machine rebooted I get an error that a device driver or service failed to load. When I click OK and then get to the log-in screen, it does not matter what I try to log-in as, it fails saying that it can not get to the domain I'm trying to log in to to authenticate my information. I'm not trying to log-in to a domain, just to the local machine.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Some other details:
This was a from scratch, empty harddrive install.
It's Windows 2003 Server Standard
It's on a small network that currently has only a workgroup of XP machines, no domain controler.

Thanks!

--Louis

 

Hmm sounds like you answered a question wrong somewhere.
Try booting in safe mode and log on locally.
Or start over.

 

I just booted in safe mode and got the exact same message, the message is: "The system can not log you in due to the following error: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. Please try again or consult your system administrator. "

I got this in safe mode trying to log in as "administrator ".

--Louis

 

When you get the logon window it should have 3 lines showing. If not, click the button at the bottom to see all three.

Top line = username
2nd line = password
3rd line = domain and if you set it to the PC name, you will be forcing local logon.

Once you get on, you need to tweak your settings since it does sound like the PC was told to log on to a domain and probably the default one DOMAIN. You can uncheck that to get local logon every time.

The picture is XP but yours should be basically the same. You can click at the end of the DOMAIN line and probably get a list that included your PC by name so you can pick that one.

 

Common Error

This is a common error with widnows 2003, we have noticed it after a back up exec load. The error really means nothing as long as all your services are started and everything is working. If you do a reinstall there is a good chance you will have it again.

Michael