I am unable to join a 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro Client to our Windows 2003 domain. A 64-bit Windows 7 client joins fine.
- After installing Windows 8.1, before joining to domain, if I run nltest /dsgetdc:, it returns the domain controller and other info just fine.
- Once I join to the domain, I get the username/password prompt, after that the "Welcome to the domain" prompt. After that it hangs for a long time and then finally I get an error saying that the domain controller could not be contacted.
- After restart, when I try to add a domain user as Administrator to the local computer, the domain users do not show up.
- The same nltest command now returns ERROR_DOMAIN_NOT_FOUND.
- The computer account has been created in the Active Directory. I verified that onthe domain controller.
- Before and after joining I can ping the domain controller by its computer name. IPCONFIG shows the DNS correctly as the IP of the domain controller.
- Windows 8.1 client is set to the same time as the time on the domain controller, firewall is off, file sharing is enabled for all networking profiles.
- Joining a 64-bit Windows 7 computer works fine.
- We reinstalled Windows 8.1 three times. Each time the same result.
- Domain controller is a Windows 2003 box.
Happy to upload logs or do anything else if someone can help us.
Roel
Best Answer
Try adding the computer by putting the full domain address instead of just the domain name. This worked for me. Don't ask me why because it shouldn't make any difference but it and it joined fine after trying to connect it all day using just the domain name.