Windows Home Server Console Incorrect Password

This one gave me headache so I hope this will help people.

I’m using Windows Home Server (WHS) v1 in network with 2 laptops and after a storm that destroyed my server power supply I haven’t been using it for a long time.

A few weeks later I replaced my power supply, restart the server and then try to log on from both remote laptops but impossible to login! (still able to login physically on the server though).

While trying to login from the Windows Home Server console I always get a “Password is incorrect” error message. And both laptops appear greyed out in the computers list.

But… I am sure of my password and nothing had changed on my remote machines: same hardware, same user, same password, same network, …

At first I found maybe the recent installation of Windows 7 SP1 changed my laptop ID so I did an uninstall/reinstall of the WHS Console but still no luck. And my second laptop was still unchanged without SP1, so….

After some research I finally found that my server’s date and time was wrong (5 years difference… might be a CMOS battery issue). Corrected and then password worked like a charm. Just a bad error message…