2/18/2009 -- Our domain controller has 4GB of RAM and an AMD Opteron dual-core processor, and we're running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. The Application Log on the server has numerous errors with Event ID 1054. The source of the error is Userenv and the error is logged in the Event Viewer every five minutes. The error states the following:
Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network. (An unexpected network error occurred). Group Policy processing aborted.
We're experiencing several network performance issues. How do I get rid of this error?
Answer:
This is a known issue with AMD dual-core processors. Each processor on a dual-core or a multiprocessor system has a time-stamp counter. When these counters for different processors are out of sync, you get what's known as a time-stamp counter drift. When that happens, you're likely to experience problems with your network communications and performance monitoring. On domain controllers, the error you described is a typical error.
As a workaround, you can use the PM_timer instead of the time-stamp counter. If you're using SP2, Windows Server 2003 uses PM timer automatically. If you aren't using SP2, you can use the /usepmtimer switch in the boot.ini to force AMD processors to use PM timer.
According to Microsoft, the problem with the AMD chipset is that it doesn't always accurately determine whether to use the PM timer or the time-stamp counter. Microsoft also says that if you have SP2, you don't need to add the /usepmtimer switch.
However, I've noticed the error you described on computers that have SP2 installed. I should also point out that Microsoft's KB article 938448 says that this issue is related to AMD Opteron processors, but you may experience this problem on AMD dual-core Athlon processors as well.
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