"There are currently no logon servers to service the logon request" for school's computer lounge

I'm currently the IT guy for my school's computer system, and I've officially ran into a problem that I just cannot solve on my own, and I'm really hoping you guys can help me out here.

It started a couple months ago. One of the computers said "There are currently no logon servers to service the logon request". I thought nothing of it, just a server error, it'd pass Then, a couple weeks later, a second one started doing it. I thought it was a little funny, but went about my business.

Then three computers started doing it. Then four. Then ten.

Within the span of a month every single computer started giving me that error, but ONLY that error. With my supervisors now fairly upset I started fervishly investigating the problem.

I called my server admins and asked if there was a problem on their end, they told me no. There isn't another room on campus having this problem. So I logged in to the local account, and I noticed that it now no longer thinks there's a driver for the ethernet port. However, when I try to install the driver, it says that there is no ethernet port on the computer.

Then, for some reason, I decided to reset the BIOS just as a last ditch effort. It worked! The computer could log on again! For about a week. Then it started doing it again. What's even stranger is that temporary fix doesn't work for all the computers. It'll work for about half of them, but the others don't even budge. They continue to give the error.

I'm begging you guys, can you give me some idea I haven't thought of yet?

Thomas Riley

Posted 2014-03-05T20:32:09.097

Reputation: 166

you have a way to re-image these PCs? something's whacked out. I'd say you have a network problem, but the real common denominator could be they're all a bad image. – MDT Guy – 2014-03-05T21:07:35.603

Have you attempted to update group policy via gpupdate /force? – JSanchez – 2014-03-05T21:38:14.413

Where is this error appearing, and what does it prevent connection to? Is this in an attempt to map a drive? What version of windows is involved? what other pieces of hardware/software (av/firewalls included)? Have you looked at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949048 or http://support.microsoft.com/kb/139410?

– MaQleod – 2014-03-05T22:06:06.030

You should provide a wee bit more information. We need to know: (1) is your network on DHCP (2) have you tested your cables (3) have you replaced the CMOS battery in your computers (which in turn affects if the settings are saved...) (4) are your server admins pulling a fast one on you by simply screwing around with the connections, or do you trust them (5) do you push remote updates or policies to your machines (6) what operating systems are you running? – Avery Payne – 2014-03-18T18:37:36.800

Answers

The message you are getting is typical when you log on to a Windows system, there is no network connectivity, and the credentials haven't been cached locally.

I noticed that it now no longer thinks there's a driver for the ethernet port. However, when I try to install the driver, it says that there is no ethernet port on the computer.

I decided to reset the BIOS just as a last ditch effort. It worked! The computer could log on again!

Sounds like someone is going into the BIOS and disabling the network adapter from there. You may look into putting a BIOS password on your systems to prevent end users from going in there and playing with settings.

LawrenceC

Posted 2014-03-05T20:32:09.097

Reputation: 63 487

This is what I thought. But, it does appear that the network adapter is disabled in the BIOS. It also wouldn't account for the 50% of the time that the reset trick doesn't work. – Thomas Riley – 2014-03-06T18:23:32.177

1Check the BIOS logs to see if maybe if a hardware failure is preventing it from initializing the onboard Ethernet. I had an old Dell GX620 that had an on-board Ethernet adapter that went bad. – LawrenceC – 2014-03-06T18:29:05.977

I would look into what is different for the computers in that room than the other rooms. A reimage might work, but the problem might come back again if you don't fix the root cause. For example, are those computers in a group that's getting a GPO applied to them that's killing the Ethernet driver.

Check if there is an update to the BIOS, update the BIOS, and that could resolve your issue. This could be a bug with your BIOS version.

MRM

Posted 2014-03-05T20:32:09.097

Reputation: 11

1I realize you cannot comment yet, but please don't leave non-answers in the answers section. – kmarsh – 2014-03-06T16:38:58.657

@kmarsh, why not? Don't tell the user not to do this because, as you said, he is limited by his reputation points and the point the poster makes may be helpful! Instead, flag the message for a mod to move it to a comment! – Dave – 2014-03-10T09:32:00.337

@kmarsh, I thought that was a helpful answer for troubleshooting because the troubleshooting was not very well stated in the original question. How am I supposed to comment in order to ask questions that are needed to help in this issue, such as what the computer model is or what the BIOS version is, when I don't have the "Points" in order to comment? Thank you Dave – MRM – 2014-03-18T18:09:54.843

I'd recommend having your network guys move one of the systems that is failing to another switch if they can; if this is not possible try swapping an nonworking system to the Ethernet port of a working one and see if the issue is resolved for the broken one and created for the good one. It sounds like the switch connected may be failing.

Only other thing I can think of for such a mass failure is intentional tampering as @ultrasawblade suggested

Jeff F.

Posted 2014-03-05T20:32:09.097

Reputation: 4 293