WinXP hangs during login in domain user or logout as local..

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

VC wrote:

> I have searched the forums and could not find something close to this.
> Here is the issue:
>
> Case 1:
> -------
> Boot up
> Login as a domain user
> Login screen hangs for 2 mins !
> Future logouts/logins as local/domain user are fine until the next
> reboot
>
> Case 2:
> -------
> Boot up
> Login as local user
> Login fine (no delay)
> Logout
> Logout screen hangs for 2 mins !!
> Future logins/logouts as local/domain user are fine until the next
> reboot
>
> So basically there is one sticky point where the system hangs and then
> its just fine till the next reboot.
>
> No errors reported in any event log. I tried to disable firewall and
> play with network adapter settings but no luck.
>

Slowness in logging on to a domain is usually caused by incorrectly
configured DNS. Here is detailed information on that from MVP Ron Lowe:

"XP differs from previous versions of windows in that it uses DNS as
it's primary name resolution method for finding domain controllers:

"If DNS is misconfigured, XP will spend a lot of time waiting for it to
timeout before it tries using legacy NT4 sytle NetBIOS. ( Which may or
may not work. )

"1) Ensure that the XP clients are all configured to point to the local
DNS server which hosts the AD domain. That will probably be the Win2k
server itself. They should NOT be pointing to an ISP's DNS server. An
'ipconfig /all' on the XP box should reveal ONLY the domain's DNS
server. You should use the DHCP server to push out the local DNS server
address.

"2) Ensure DNS server on Win2k is configured to permit dynamic updates.

"3) Ensure the Win2k server points to itself as a DNS server.

"4) For external ( internet ) name resolution, specify your ISP's DNS
server not on the clients, but in the 'forwarders' tab of the local
Win2k DNS server.

"On the DNS server, if you cannot access the 'Forwarders' and 'Root
Hints' tabs because they are greyed out, that is because there is a
root zone ("." ) present on the DNS server. You MUST delete this root
zone to permit the server to forward unresolved queries to yout ISP or
the root servers. Accept any nags etc, and let it delete any
corresponding reverse lookup zones if it asks."

How Domain Controllers Are Located in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/defau [...] -us;314861
Setting Up the Domain Name System for Active Directory -
http://support.microsoft.com/defau [...] -us;237675
HOW TO: Configure DNS for Internet Access in Windows 2000 -
http://support.microsoft.com/defau [...] -us;300202
DNS and AD FAQs - http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291382

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Ok,
To make things simple, I disjoined the domain and now the computer is
in its own workgroup.
The login local user is fine but the logout (ONLY FOR 1st Time) takes
forever !

The funny thing is that after every reboot, the issue will occur only
at the 1st instance and then never again. So if it was a service or
network issue, it would have happened every time. This is freaky
windows.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Well, so I went on a 2 day hunt to figure out what the hell was taking
so long to start. Thanks to the dude who created msconfig, I started to
strip down the OS and try out each service at time.
It seems that for some reason the Workstation Service was taking
forever to start. Now when you login into a domain it needs the
NetLogon service which depends on the WorkStation Service (aka
Lanmanworkstation aka Client for MS Network).
I reinstalled Client for MS Networks, atleast the Workstation service
starts fine now and the logout works fine as well. Now I dont have the
domain access at the moment so I cannot confirm but I assume (fingers
crossed) that this should fix the domain login issue too. If I find
that the issue is still not resolved then I will just reinstall the OS


Anyways, MORAL of the story, if you cannot see anything in logs then
try to strip down the OS and take baby steps using the MSCONFIG tool.