0x80004005: An error occurred while retrieving policy for this computer

Started a new job recently and one of the techs was having a problem imaging a laptop with a recently replaced motherboard.  We would PXE boot the laptop and then WinPE would bomb out in 10 seconds stating “0x80004005: An error occurred while retrieving policy for this computer”.

Nothing interesting was found on the SCCM side, however when I finally found the SMSTS.LOG in X:\Windows\temp\SMSTSLOG, I didn’t even have to open the file to figure out the problem: it was dated 2016!  Yup: it was a date and time issue.  If your computer skews too far from the current date and time, SCCM won’t talk to your computer.

You can use the commands date and time within cmd (hit the F8 key…you did enable this functionality, right?) to set the correct date and time.

  • Soli Deo Gloria