cannot rename pc's on domain

[Justin_H]

Hi, I cannot seem to rename pc's on our Win 2003 domain. I first have to disjoin the domain, rename the pc on the workgroup, then join the domain again.

The error that comes up - "the following error occurred attempting to rename the computer to 'xxxx': The account already exists". It happens with both 2k and xp. Only occasionaly does the error not come up and I can successfully rename.

The name (account) that i am trying to use did once exist, but it no longer reflects in dns. On the pc's that i am trying to rename i also tried ipconfig /flushdns and checked in the hosts and lmhosts files for old entries, without luck.

thanks

[Ken wanderer]

have you created the account first under Active Directory? I did this for the last system as I too was having issues. I Went into AD and created a system then went to the PC and added the name and it found it.

[Justin_H]

Hi Ken, I did not create the computer account first in AD, i let it be automatically created when joining the domain. But thanks your response led me to the problem. Even though the old computer names was deleted in the dns records, the computer account was still in AD, thus not allowing me to rename pc's using that same name.