New Windows install problem

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2008-07-16 06:03pm

I have a XP Pro SP2 setup on a desktop that just got installed, but the problem is that there were two accounts at creation, and at first successful boot-up, I get this error message:

The system cannot log you on due to the following error:

The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.

Please try again or contact your system administrator.

Any clue what this means? (Note that there's no "password hint" button for either of the accounts, and unfortunately there's no 'turn this computer off' button.)

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-07-17 02:32am

Looks like that desktop was part of a Windows domain and is attempting to contact a server to authenticate you.

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2008-07-18 06:11pm

Ahh, thanks. Was there any other solution besides simply starting anew and reinstalling Windows?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-07-18 07:42pm

Do you have any local administrator accounts you can use? If not, you'll probably have to reinstall.

Argosh · Post by **Argosh** » 2008-07-19 11:59am

Its Windows, so its safe to assume both accounts are root.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2008-07-19 03:56pm

Not if they're domain accounts. By default they're created without local administrator access, IIRC.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2008-07-19 06:40pm

Argosh wrote:Its Windows, so its safe to assume both accounts are root.

No, it isn't.