Issue

Users can't login on a single workstation in Windows Server 2008R domain. Following error message is displayed:

Domain trust relationship error

The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed.

There are no other issues on the network and none of the other computers are affected.

Cause

After logging-on to the PC with a local admin account and checking recent system logs, I found following issues that could have caused the problem:

  • The PC has recently tried to install bunch of Windows Updates and failed.
  • The PC has recently suffered an improper shutdown.

Not sure if these occurred at the same time, but I think it's reasonable to assume that on (or both) of the above issues caused the PC to lose trust relationship with a domain controller.

Resolution

First of all I tried to reset the computer account via Active Directory Users and Computers. That didn't make any difference. Then, while logged on as a local administrator, I removed the PC from the domain (joined WORKGROUP) and then immediately re-added it to the domain. After a reboot the PC was functioning properly.

Windows Server 2008R2
Windows 7 SP1 

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