Windows 7 Cached Credentials - No Logon Server. Can't Log In

Question

I recently transferred my domain controller over to another Windows 2003 server. The old one was retired and disconnected from the network.

I have since found that I can no longer log into my laptop when disconnected from the network. This was never an issue before. I checked the local group policy and Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Interactive Logon: Number of previous logons to cache... is set to 10. If I restart and remove the ethernet cable before logging in, I get the error stating the log on server could not be found. Once I plug it back in, I can log on.

Everything in the domain seems to work perfectly fine, but for some reason this setting is just not working anymore. Is there another setting somewhere that could be disabling this?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Solution

Randolph West's comment from original question.

I'd spend this time removing and re-adding the machine to the domain. It's Windows 7, so you can back up the profile and restore it when it's back online again. - Randolph West

That did it! Not a real fan of that being the solution, but it was. Was more hoping the solution would be an obscure setting somewhere. Thanks a lot!

Also it allowed me to see that I had some DNS issues with the dual NICs on the server since I wasn't able to initially join back to the domain.

Comments

[Admin]

When you migrated to the new server, did you remember to migrate all the roles?

[TyCobb]

Yes. The roles were migrated without issue and the server was able to be decommissioned without causing any hiccups. This is the only issue I have encountered in the whole month of the original server being offline. Not sure if there is something still cached on the local client machine or not though. No clue how to check that.

[Admin]

I'd spend this time removing and re-adding the machine to the domain. It's Windows 7, so you can back up the profile and restore it when it's back online again.