Lenovo 3000 Group Policy issue

[cookie_monster]

I'm posting this here as it could be Windows, the switch (Netgear FS700TS) or the network card (VIA Rhine 2)

We have one of these desktops Lenovo 3000 J105 8259-JCG and it's refusing to apply any group policies.

I get the event below in the log followed by some W32Time errors then this "The system detected that network adapter VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter was connected to the network, and has initiated normal operation over the network adapter."

Event ID 5719
No Domain Controller is available for domain BCS due to the following:
There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request.

This seems to cause it not to apply software policy but i can logon straight away.

Now i've tried many things which i'll list below:

1. Made sure that spanning tree is turned off on the switch port (and tried it on as well for fun)

2. Fast port forwarding both on and off

3. Fixed the speed at 100 Full DP at both ends

4. Updated the driver to the latest version

5. Set the Wait for network at startup and logon policy, in GP and local policy

6. Tried a different port and switch

I have several other PC's on the same switch and they don't have any issues. I seem to remember this happening before on this box and a rebuild sorted it but i don't want to have to rebuild it every time this happens.
I'm starting to wonder if it's a quirk with the network driver.

This is a fully patched XP SP2 box.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

[Diello]

Group Policy application fails on a computer that is running Windows 2000, Windows XP Service Pack 1, or Windows XP Service Pack 2 has worked for us in the past when we've had these errors - though that was over wireless!

[cookie_monster]

Nope that didn't work i'm afraid.

[srochford]

What are the w32time errors? What time is on the client PC? Windows will fail to do all sorts of things if time isn't synchronised properly.

Try: w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier /update and then w32tm /resync to force it to use the domain time sources and to resync (could be that someone has changed it to use an external time server???)

Is the DNS correct?

Can't remember if gpresult gives any info about why gp is not applying.

Are there any 1202 errors in the application event log? If so, run these 3 commands:
esentutl /g %windir%\security\database\secedit.sdb
esentutl /p /o %windir%\security\database\secedit.sdb
gpupdate /force /boot

- first 2 check/fix the database; third just forces gps to apply.

[SYNACK]

I would also try adding the registry key in this MS page:
How to disable the Media Sensing feature for TCP/IP in Windows

It will force Windows to wait for proper connectivity if a network link is detected. This kind of thing often happens to certain network cards as the actual IP connectivity fluctuates at startup. I have used this key to fix similar errors on several computers.

[cookie_monster]

Hi all, cheers for the replys. I needed this sorting so i've rebuilt it for now and it's magically all ok again.

I'll try the suggestions 'when' it happens again.

Cheers.