In article <uItwdCP2DHA.2792@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>, aaa says...

about the time service:
The PDC-Emulator of the Rootdomain is not supposed to point to itself (also
I've seen that being mentioned a lot in the newsgroups - a lot of people who
are not able to read the w32time whitepaper).
If you are not able to point it to a good timesource, then set it to trust his
local time instead of pointing it to himself.
This is done by editing the registry:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\par ameters
type = "nosync"
reliableTimeSource = 1 (reg_dword)

All other time servers are supposed to use the domain hierarchy, so the
registry key "type" should state "NT5DS"

For your reference the following informations about the timeservice:

216734 How to Configure an Authoritative Time Server in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=216734

The Windows Timeservice
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...intimeserv.doc

223184 Registry Entries for the W32Time Service
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=223184

About your "failed PDC-Emulator":
If dcdiag on all machines (even the supposed PDC-Emulator itself") state that
the PDC-Emulator is not available, I'd try a Transfer to the same server where
it's already expected. It might tell you that it's not able to contact the
current holder of the role and that you need to seize the role. Seizing the
role in this case is OK - just go for it. It's the same DC.


Gruesse - Sincerely,

Ulf B. Simon-Weidner