Windows 11 forced a PIN change, now connectivity with network is intermittent

Question

I can't imagine that the 2 would be linked, but it's the only conclusion I've come to.

Windows 11 informed me that my organization required me to change my PIN. There was no option available not to do so. This is my personal computer, so there is no organization to require me to change my PIN. And the weird thing is, I have 3 other computers in the house, all with the same Microsoft Account, and all still use the old PIN. I did a quick Google search, and found a previous post regarding a similar issue where a work or school account had been added to the computer. I've checked mine and there are no work or school accounts associated.

Since this PIN update. My 10GbE NIC (NAS only private network) has lost the ability to stay connected to my NAS. I can access the NAS UI with no issues using the same NIC/Connection, but the mapped drive works for a limited time and then stalls out. And File Explorer crashes when I try to do anything with the mapped drive, including simply right clicking on it. Once File Explorer crashes, the taskbar disappears and the Windows key + "key" commands stop working. Ctrl + Alt + Del still gets me to Task Manager, but all it can do is try to restart Windows Explorer which fails every time. This inevitably leads to a forced reboot, and further attempts to diagnose the issue.

If I can figure out what forced the PIN reset, maybe I can figure out why the NIC can no longer stay connected to the NAS. It feels like an account/permissions issue, but I haven't made any changes to this PC nor have I been able to locate anything that would cause this.

I appreciate any and all help!

Answer 1

The NAS / SMB issues happened after PIN reset when the NAS is joined to a domain, or maybe you're mapping a drive that relies on stored credentials, the reset PIN or account conflict might disrupt credential manager entries or access tokens. Then the symptoms may appear like : File Explorer crashTaskbar disappearing, Windows key shortcuts failing, File Explorer unable to restart, point to a deeper authentication or permissions mismatch, possibly SMB or Winlogon-related.

So I have some recommend for you to try it out and then let me know the result :

Delete existing mapped drive:

• net use * /delete

Clear stored credentials:

• Open Credential Manager
• Remove any credentials associated with the NAS

Remap the network drive:

• Using net use X: \\NAS_IP\share /user:NAS_USER PASSWORD /persistent:yes

Also consider enabling these SMB settings via PowerShell:

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableSecuritySignature $true
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

*But if your NAS only supports SMB1 (not recommended), make sure the feature is enabled manually (Optional Features > SMB 1.0/CIFS), though prefer updating your NAS firmware to support SMB2 or 3 instead.