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How can I solve this 'cannot find DHCP server' error?
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I have Windows Advanced Server installed with Active Directory. I have cable connections to Internet using DHCP. This all worked until one day I had a power failure and my machine got corrupted. After that I always get "cannot find DHCP Server" errors when doing ipconfig /renew. I tried reinstalling network services but could not get tcp/ip protocol to uninstall.
Right now my Active Directory is not working and cannot open Domain Controller Security Policy and Domain Security Policy. And I cannot open the local policy database.
I tried demoting the Active Directory services but cannot seem to give the correct user/pwd/domain.
What can I do short of reinstalling Windows which I really don't want to do as I have many applications that would fail after that?
Right now my Active Directory is not working and cannot open Domain Controller Security Policy and Domain Security Policy. And I cannot open the local policy database.
I tried demoting the Active Directory services but cannot seem to give the correct user/pwd/domain.
What can I do short of reinstalling Windows which I really don't want to do as I have many applications that would fail after that?
I assume that you were using the local machine as the DNS server. Based on this assumption, you could manually assign an IP address to the machine and then configure the primary DNS in the IP Configuration to be the new IP that you gave the machine. Prior to doing this, you may want to run the command:
This will save the IP configuration to the file C:\IPINFO.TXT in case you need to review it. Make a note of the DHCP server as well. Now the network changes will likely give you access to the various policies and what not. However, you will have to address the DHCP configuration issue. If you know what the DHCP servers IP address is, which is in the IPINFO.TXT file, try to ping it. If you cannot, then you are dealing with a low level network issue. Uninstall the network card, reboot and reinstall the network card. This would most likely help correct that issue. You will then want to return the IP configuration back to the DHCP settings it had.
IPCONFIG /ALL > C:\IPINFO.TXT
This will save the IP configuration to the file C:\IPINFO.TXT in case you need to review it. Make a note of the DHCP server as well. Now the network changes will likely give you access to the various policies and what not. However, you will have to address the DHCP configuration issue. If you know what the DHCP servers IP address is, which is in the IPINFO.TXT file, try to ping it. If you cannot, then you are dealing with a low level network issue. Uninstall the network card, reboot and reinstall the network card. This would most likely help correct that issue. You will then want to return the IP configuration back to the DHCP settings it had.
This was last published in January 2004
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