I was configuring my WSS 3.0 installation and was getting this exception logged in the eventviewer on every page refresh and getting a message "Some or all identity references could not be translated".

The solution to this problem was "stsadm.exe -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin -password".

Yippee, the central administration came up. 

Description:

Failed to register SharePoint services.

An exception of type System.Security.Principal.IdentityNotMappedException was thrown.  Additional exception information: Some or all identity references could not be translated.

System.Security.Principal.IdentityNotMappedException: Some or all identity references could not be translated.

   at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(IdentityReferenceCollection sourceAccounts, Type targetType, Boolean forceSuccess)

   at System.Security.Principal.NTAccount.Translate(Type targetType)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.CurrentUserIsAdministrator()

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.Update()

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPService.Update()

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPDiagnosticsService.Update()

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.Update(Boolean ensure)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServicesTask.InstallServiceInConfigDB(Boolean provisionTheServiceToo, String serviceRegistryKeyName)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServicesTask.InstallServices(Boolean provisionTheServicesToo)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ServicesTask.Run()

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

Enjai,

Puneet.H