NT 4.0 locked, administrator account cannot unlock

[DefStryk]

This is a very strange problem, I've never seen anything like it before.

Just got in this morning to find our mail server (Exchange 5.5, running on NT4.0 -- all updates and SP up to date)
Is locked, trying to unlock it with the Administrator account gives the message "This computer is locked only the Administrator or administrator can unlock it"

We've tried unlocking it with multiple "Admin" accounts but nothing. Also mail services appear to be down on the machine like it is frozen.

It is Pingable. Remoting in fails.


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We recently reduced the paging file size on its secondary drive.
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If anyone could provide some insight into this, short of doing a hard shut down, that would be great.

 

[spi200]

Hi

The server may not be able to talk to the Domain controllers, so login with a Local Administrator account.
You could also use a program like PSKILL which can remotely shut down a box.
If that still does not work then hit the power button, just ensure you have a good backup.


Dave