We have been getting sporadic reports from our users of the error, "The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed." The workaround has been to dejoin and rejoin the domain, but it keeps happening and we need a permanent fix. It has been suggested we disable the automatic machine accouint password change on our domain members in GPO. While this may be a viable option with relatively low security risks, I'd really like to figure out why it's happening and try to fix it. It has become quite a nuance for the techs who have to go to different sites to rejoin to domain. We have a 1 Windows 2003 Domain with 26 DC at different sites. The OS is mostly W2K3 R2 and couple W2K8 R2. The affected clients are Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 Sp1.

Hi there, could you tell me, if the problem is only existing on the old clients or on the new clients? Also, please check the Secure Channel settings of your clients (if they are set via GPO / only local) and if there's a difference in the settings. Also - take a look at your DCs replication and check the time settings - maybe there's a connection. If the machine resets the machine account password and these changes are not replicated, and the machine is trying to build the Secure Channel with the DC which does not know about the changes --> Bang :)

Hi, Thanks for posting in Microsoft TechNet forums. As this thread has been quiet for a while, we assume that the issue has been resolved. At this time, we will mark it as Answered as the previous steps should be helpful for many similar scenarios. If the issue still persists, please feel free to reply this post directly so we will be notified to follow it up. You can also choose to unmark the answer as you wish. BTW, wed love to hear your feedback about the solution. By sharing your experience you can help other community members facing similar problems. Thanks for your understanding and efforts. Best Regards Elytis ChengElytis Cheng TechNet Community Support