Hi, really need some help with this one, We had some issues on one our (2)Domain Controllers that required the machine to be rebooted. Since this machine was rebooted, 3 of our machines in that Domain have been acting up and we're running out of ideas as to what the problems may be. SYMPTOMS: All 3 boxes have the same symptoms. - Logging onto the box via RDC or direct KVM connection results in a frozen screen and usually gets stuck at "applying your personal settings" or the machine gets stuck just showing the desktop background, explorer.exe doesn't appear to launch and if CTRL/ALT/DEL responds, Task Manager doesn't launch if you select that. Logon however is randomly succesfull. On other occasions you can login ok and if you can login the following symtoms occur: - Cannot launch any MSC files or sometimes if you can get an msc to launch, services.msc/eventvwr.msc etcwill launch once but if it's closed you cannot reopen it and no other msc's can be opened. Or if you right click My Computer and Manage, this also sometimes opens but has tendencies to freeze if you try access IIS or services or Windows Media Server etc. It's all very random. ERROR MESSAGES: On the night of the crash I noticed the following errors in Event Viewer on the failed DC: DCOM error - Machine failed to connect to "COMPUTER" using specific protocols. (the COMPUTER names were the same names at the 3 failed machines) I checked at the event logs (when I was lucky enough to get it open)on the failed machines and got this error: The server {73E709EA-5D93-4B2E-BBB0-99B7938DA9E4} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout. The server {E8FB8621-588F-11D2-9D61-00C04F79C5FE} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout. ATTEMPTS: Things we have tried: 1. On the failing MSC's, I did a search and found people with similar problems and they said re-registering the msxml3.dll file solved their problem. THIS DIDN'T WORK on these boxes. 2. For the login problems we suspected because of the DC faliure Domain Accounts might be the problem, so tried using Local Admin accounts and these wielded the same symptoms. We also though perhaps the profiles of these accounts has become somehow corrupted, so created brand new Local Admin accounts and tried those, the logon problems continued and msc files failed etc (if logon was successful). 3. Suspecting potential viruses, we ran virus scans and all came out clear. NO VIRUSES causing this problem. 4. To make 100% sure the DC's etc weren't causing any problems, the machines were removed from the Domain, so they are now Stand Alone boxes. The symptoms continue. 5. Suspecting corrupted Group Policy settings, we cleared all Group Policies, so the machine is at default settings. So this is not causing the problem. Any suggestions to this problem are more than welcome. The machines have different OS setups: 2 machines are Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition 32 Bit - Service Pack 2 1 Machine is Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition 32 Bit - Service Pack 2 I'm probably forgetting something. Our currently option is to rebuild the machines, but I don't want to take that route, I really want to establish what has caused this issue on 3 machines. Thanks for your time. Regards NSANDY

Hi Nsandy, Please understand that we mainly discuss Exchange issues in this forum, in order to get a prompt and exact answer, I suggest writing a post on the Windows Server forums: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/winservergen/threads/ Thanks, Elvis