XP Pro to Sever 2003 A Domain Controller cannot be contacted

has this pc been on the domain before? if so have you checked the NIC to see that the connectivity and activity lights are on? if it's new to the network did you try loggin on as administrator for the server to accept it as a new pc on the domain.

Yeah

No its not new to the domain this is a new server. I have DNS and a domain controller install and there is connectivity i can access the internet and ping the server. I went to my domain users and trust and tried adding the computer but it still didn't recognize it. Is there somewhere else i should be to have the domain accept my other computer. And another thing my server keeps shutting down unexpectedly. After i get home from work it has restarted.

Ok so the problem has seem to fixed itself. I have joined the domain. But what about the unexpected restart. Can you explain this?

firstly i must say i'm not a server guru. but whenever i log a new workstation on the domain, i log on as administrator from the local station and the server sets that pc up on the domain. i was told it's better than adding the pc name manually on the server first.

but this is a server joining a domain already controlled by a server? as for the restart the first thing i'd check is the event viewer. if something is recorded then it might narrow down the reason for the restart. if there is nothing there then it could be a physical fault of the server. like faulty PSU or RAM.

Yeah word i hear you im not much of an anything guru. But that aside its a XP machine connecting to a 2003 domain but i got that fixed. Although it won't let me manage the pc from my server now. Anyway the reason it restarted it says is this...<br><br>
A critical system process, C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe, failed with status code 128. The Machine must now be restarted. Well im off to google that now.

so that was just a security update...yay.