NT 4.0 BDC. Unable to locate PDC.

[RiezalR]

During NT installation, i choose to set up as BDC. What it does then is tries to set up networking. I've got two NICs, one is able to be auto-detected by NT the other needs to be installed using a driver disk.

The problem is, no matter which NIC i set as active, it is unable to locate the PDC. Error is "Unable to locate controller for this domain". My suspicion is that networking was not started successfully. I've entered the correct static IP, i even tried Importing a custom LMHOSTS file with the IP of the PDC and domain-name. Still it is unable to find the PDC. It worked for me once, but when i tried installing NT again it never worked again. The NIC has been set up correctly with drivers and tcp/ip settings.

Anyone faced this problem before?

 

[rdroske]

Can it resolve the name of the PDC ie can go to start/run \\pdcname OK

 

[zoeythecat]

You sure you getting a good connection from the port to the NIC? Try different port.

 

[mattjurado]

I'd start by removing one nic. Rerun the setup, try again. You can always install the other nic after setup is done. Still fails, look at patch cable/port on hub, maybe its a connectivity issue. Still fails, just finish the setup as a member server, then see if you have a server that fully functions on the network. Can you ping, browse, etc... Figure out the problem, then reinstall.

Matt J.

P.S. Please always take the time to backup any and all data before performing any actions suggested for ANY problem, regardless of how minor a change it might seem. Also test the backup to make sure it is intact.

 

[griggio]

I have run into an issue where another pc could not join the domain because the IPC$ share was deleted on the pdc cause of a virus. If you do not have this share, no new pc's or bdc will be able to join the domain. If that isnt it try using a different cable.

 

[RiezalR]

Thanks very much for all the help.

I have tried installing it multiple times, and out of 10 times trying i got to connect to the PDC only once. I did suspect that it was a cable or switch issue and i did change the cables. Same thing keeps happening. What i might do is find another NIC and try using that. Is it a problem if i don't connect to the PDC directly? We have like 60 machines connected to the switch here, doubt that it should cause a problem, but does it?