Hi All Short description of issue: Windows Server 2003 SP2. Upon booting get ICMP response up to the point where "Applying Computer Settings" is shown. Then timeout. Server booting into Safemode With Networking then everything is fine..... I even reinstalled TCP/IP with "Netsh int ip reset" I reinstalled NIC drivers to latest, dissolved TEAMING, assigned IP on secondary NIC and removed from primary NIC, Disabled all NON-MS services and rebooted , but symptoms remain. This is HP DL380 G4. Only thing I haven't done yet is re-install with latest PSP. I assume something starting with windows ( driver or service ) is breaking the TCP/IP stack but i have no idea what!! Any ideas ?

Hi Customer, Your issue is server hang on the "Applying Computer Settings" or no response ICMP protocol like ping command? If your server has been configured IPSec policy, it may block traffic like icmp. Please try to stop IPSec service. If you server icmp protocol block by group policy from domain, please move the computer to new OU in domain and block policy inheritance in GPMC. Block inheritance using GPMC http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738307(WS.10).aspxRegards, Rick Tan

Hi Rick This is a Domain Controller. There is NO IPSec policies defined. Obviously the server is in the Standard Domain Controllers OU - nothing special. I did go through the GPO's that apply to this box and found nothing that will prevent ICMP response at startup. behavious is as follow : Running continuous ping to the server Server boots Windows Logo appears Status message appears and able to ping server fine and get about 30 replies..... All of a sudden ICMP stops and keeps timing out from there on. Starting server in SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING - server starts and able to ping all the time..... This leads me to believe that something at startup ( service or driver ) is breaking network I/O I checked NTBTLOG.txt and found no significant driver that is NOT loaded that may cause this..... Seeing that this is an ALL-IN-ONE box ( Backup, DC, Exchange server ) - yeah - don't ask ! - I am now in the process of disabling each 3rd party app in turn. Thought anyone may have seen this behaviour before and could give me a quick and dirty on how to fix . Looks like I may need to do it the long and hard way. Will post here if I find the culprit.

Hi Rick This is a Domain Controller. There is NO IPSec policies defined. Obviously the server is in the Standard Domain Controllers OU - nothing special. The problem is not ONLy ICMP - ALL network I/O is non-operational to this box. I did go through the GPO's that apply to this box and found nothing that will prevent ICMP response at startup. behavious is as follow : Running continuous ping to the server Server boots Windows Logo appears Status message appears and able to ping server fine and get about 30 replies..... All of a sudden ICMP stops and keeps timing out from there on. Starting server in SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING - server starts and able to ping all the time..... This leads me to believe that something at startup ( service or driver ) is breaking network I/O I checked NTBTLOG.txt and found no significant driver that is NOT loaded that may cause this..... Seeing that this is an ALL-IN-ONE box ( Backup, DC, Exchange server ) - yeah - don't ask ! - I am now in the process of disabling each 3rd party app in turn. Thought anyone may have seen this behaviour before and could give me a quick and dirty on how to fix . Looks like I may need to do it the long and hard way. Will post here if I find the culprit.

Managed to fix the problem... Was IPSec after all. The server had a missing IPSEC policy store in the registry. Just recreated it with regsvr32 polstore.dll - rebooted - and Bob became my uncle ! Hope that helps anyone with similar issues. Regards