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Message
WDS & Dell drivers
Posted on 7/30/14 at 4:59 pm
Posted on 7/30/14 at 4:59 pm
My first gripe: why does WinPE need anything more than just a generic driver for a NIC? It's good enough to PXE boot with, it's good enough to load the .WIM files... why the hell does MS demand specific drivers for this?
Second gripe: Why the bleeding hell does Dell release new systems that need drivers that aren't yet in their rollup?
This has been me this whole week:
while trying to get our new computers (laptops and desktops) imaged.
:csb:
:waaaaaaahmbulance:
:ID-10-T error:
etc.
Second gripe: Why the bleeding hell does Dell release new systems that need drivers that aren't yet in their rollup?
This has been me this whole week:
while trying to get our new computers (laptops and desktops) imaged. :csb:
:waaaaaaahmbulance:
:ID-10-T error:
etc.
1
Posted on 7/31/14 at 9:18 am to Bard
So today I am on the phone with "Irving" from Dell.
Me: "Hi Irving, I am trying to image some new laptops and desktops but the NICs on these things don't seem to have drivers in the latest CAB rollup."
Irving (after about 2 minutes of silence in which I was not going to prompt him): "Uhm, yes sir. Have you tried running the Dell Diagnostics to see if your hard drive is working."
Me: "I've already booted the system into Windows multiple times, once was to make sure I had copied the driver INF files from the DriveStore folder. The problem I'm having is that either the NIC or the Motherboard drivers (since it's an integrated NIC) aren't working in the PE environment for some reason."
Irving: dead silence for another couple minutes, then he asks my name, email addy & phone number and verifies the machine's service tag. Then a looooooooong stretch of silence (using the time to type this).
Me: "Hi Irving, I am trying to image some new laptops and desktops but the NICs on these things don't seem to have drivers in the latest CAB rollup."
Irving (after about 2 minutes of silence in which I was not going to prompt him): "Uhm, yes sir. Have you tried running the Dell Diagnostics to see if your hard drive is working."
Me: "I've already booted the system into Windows multiple times, once was to make sure I had copied the driver INF files from the DriveStore folder. The problem I'm having is that either the NIC or the Motherboard drivers (since it's an integrated NIC) aren't working in the PE environment for some reason."
Irving: dead silence for another couple minutes, then he asks my name, email addy & phone number and verifies the machine's service tag. Then a looooooooong stretch of silence (using the time to type this).
Posted on 7/31/14 at 9:21 am to Bard
Still waiting... I'm imaging him waiting for a Team Lead to come by.
Posted on 7/31/14 at 9:26 am to Bard
Posted on 7/31/14 at 9:29 am to Bard
Irving: "Would it be possible for me to send you a new motherboard since there seems to be a problem with your N-E-C, Network Interface Card?"
Me: "Normally I would jump on a new part, but considering this is happening with one of the new laptops as well, I don't think it's a hardware issue".
...and we're back on the silent hold.
Me: "Normally I would jump on a new part, but considering this is happening with one of the new laptops as well, I don't think it's a hardware issue".
...and we're back on the silent hold.
Posted on 7/31/14 at 9:35 am to Bard
I realized I hadn't tried the laptop since regenerating the image after the last driver injection. Tried it while waiting on hold and it's working soooooo frick me running. 
Now I have to go unbox another desktop to test it out, but at least I know I can get the laptops done now
Now I have to go unbox another desktop to test it out, but at least I know I can get the laptops done now
Posted on 7/31/14 at 9:40 am to Bard
quote:
Bard
Lenovo is the same way..They don't practice PXE & WDS because they offer similar products for Corporate environments...
We learned this when the T430 would PXE and the T440 would not...
This post was edited on 7/31/14 at 9:41 am
Posted on 7/31/14 at 11:13 am to GrammarKnotsi
Update: The 2nd desktop has the same issue, so it's a driver issue and not hardware. I figured as much but if I had not tested it it damned sure would have been a hardware issue because that's just the way things work 
Posted on 8/1/14 at 5:04 pm to Bard
I've finally fixed it! 
For those that work or may end up working with WDS, here's what the issue was...
The Dell OptiPlex 3020 is using a Realtek integrated NIC. The drivers were not on my WIM file (ie: image) so I had to inject them. Instead of doing the smart thing (dl'ing them from Dell's site) I went into the DriverStore folder and just injected everything in there. That's something like a freaking gig of drivers (printers, cameras, etc). But that was only part of the issue.
When I inherited this job, the guy that set it up had put all the drivers into the Out-Of-Box folder without creating any OU's ("organizational Units", or "folders" for the more non-techy folks here to learn). While I thought some level of organizing might be a good idea, I didn't pursue it as everything worked as it was.
So now we had a metric shite-ton of drivers added to a metric frick-ton of drivers, something had to eventually give and it did. What was happening was that when the machine got into the PE environment there was no mouse pointer and neither mouse nor keyboard worked.
Thankfully I had backed up my good WIM file on a... whim (HAH!) (always do this before injecting Windows Updates or drivers, I know I learned my lesson). This gave me a very quick and easy reference point to go back to.
Eventually what I did was remove everything from the Out-Of-Box folder, created an OU for the rollup then imported the drivers from the rollup CAB. I injected those, replaced the WIM and PRESTO!
During my research I found a few tidbits about some Broadcoms not working with PE at all, so beware.
Now back to fist-pumping...
For those that work or may end up working with WDS, here's what the issue was...
The Dell OptiPlex 3020 is using a Realtek integrated NIC. The drivers were not on my WIM file (ie: image) so I had to inject them. Instead of doing the smart thing (dl'ing them from Dell's site) I went into the DriverStore folder and just injected everything in there. That's something like a freaking gig of drivers (printers, cameras, etc). But that was only part of the issue.
When I inherited this job, the guy that set it up had put all the drivers into the Out-Of-Box folder without creating any OU's ("organizational Units", or "folders" for the more non-techy folks here to learn). While I thought some level of organizing might be a good idea, I didn't pursue it as everything worked as it was.
So now we had a metric shite-ton of drivers added to a metric frick-ton of drivers, something had to eventually give and it did. What was happening was that when the machine got into the PE environment there was no mouse pointer and neither mouse nor keyboard worked.
Thankfully I had backed up my good WIM file on a... whim (HAH!) (always do this before injecting Windows Updates or drivers, I know I learned my lesson). This gave me a very quick and easy reference point to go back to.
Eventually what I did was remove everything from the Out-Of-Box folder, created an OU for the rollup then imported the drivers from the rollup CAB. I injected those, replaced the WIM and PRESTO!
During my research I found a few tidbits about some Broadcoms not working with PE at all, so beware.
Now back to fist-pumping...
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