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PXE Boot failing for SCCM 2007 R3 Client

I have ran into an issue with my SCCM 2007 R3 lab environment. I started off with an one client and a sccm windows server and everything seems to be working fine. I can PXE-Boot, sccm sees the computer, and I can send advertisements. However when I went to setup another client in the environment it is failing to PXE-Boot. In SCCM it sees both computers and the status for both are identical, I have firewall turned off on all machines. The computer is getting an IP address from the DHCP and I was able to join the lab domain(so network connection is fine). However the error that I get when trying to PXE Boot is;

PXE-E51: No DHCP or ProxyDHCP offers were received.
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent

I have the computer in the same collection as the first computer and the advertisement has an os install task sequence advertisement configured. The first PC is getting an IP address and booting to the sccm utility so its not an advertisement issue. I also have enabled unknown computer support and I'm responding to all requests. I checked the BIOS setting for the PC and it is correctly configured with the network boot option with PXE. I have deleteed the computer and readded it into sccm. I have ran all of the actions from the configuration manager on the client. The only difference in the two machines is the model, PC1=Dell Optiplex GX620 and PC2(bad)= Dell Optiplex 780. Any ideas? Please help I have run out of them.

Kezzi

How is your lab configured? Just one server with all AD and DHCP and SCCM roles on it?

cmartineau

ASKER

Yes I have one server running everything.

Kezzi

Try restarting the Windows Deployment Service. I find that sometimes when machines wont PXE boot, its either because of stale records in PXE or their status changed from known to unknown by deleting the object from SCCM and PXE still has the previous advertisment in its list. Restarting that service generally clears that out.

cmartineau

ASKER

I did try that along with completely rebooting the server. It does see the computer in SCCM so I'm not sure if it is still considered an unknown computer or not. I do have an advertisement for an os install task sequence on the unknown computers collection just in case it is still unknown. I am able to PXE boot fine with the first computer that I added to the domain but the second computer still wont and they are in the same collection in SCCM. I am going to try to remove the computer from the SCCM again and see if that helps or not.

Kezzi

does the second machine get an IP address at all from within its current image?

cmartineau

ASKER

I can boot into windows that is currently installed and I am getting a valid IP address and I was able to join the domain. I successfully ran the client manager and all of the actions on this machine so SCCM sees all of the information on both machines.

Kezzi

Are there any differences in the BIOS for these 2 models with regards to network booting options etc

cmartineau

ASKER

Yes there are, I am wondering if there is something going on there. I have four machines setup in the lab... I have two Dell Optiplex GX620 (older) machines and two Dell Optiplex 780 (newer) machines. In our live enviroment we are using the Dell Optiplex 780 machines so its critical that I get these machines to PXE Boot. In the Bios it has four options for the integrated nic (off, on, on w\pxe, on imageserver) From my unsterstanding I want the on with PXE option. The ImageServer option is used for thin-clints. Other than that I don't see any other options in the Bios. I was thinking about trying to install a different nic in the machine but I would have to purchase one. I did update the Bios to the most current version to make sure there wasn't something there.

Kezzi

have you tried setting it to just ON instead of ON w/PXE and then when it boots make sure NIC is still the first booting option.

cmartineau

ASKER

Yes when doing that it just skips to hard drive, if I hold the F12 for boot options network boot is not available.

Kezzi

Make sure that the Multi Core Support is enable- (should be a check next to it)

Change the SATA Drive Operation to LEGACY

Whats your manufacturer sent BIOS version and what have you upgraded it to?

cmartineau

ASKER

I believe that it was at A05 and it is now A09. I do have the Multi-Core Support enabled and I will check on the legacy option.

cmartineau

ASKER

I changed to the legacy option and it has the same result. However after failing the PXE Boot it attempts to boot windows and I get the configuration change screen and if I select boot to windows normal it just restarts machine.

Kezzi

found this which might help?

Network card Enabled w/ PXE
The Windows XP images do not have support for AHCI mode, so on newer Dell models, SATA Operation Mode should be set to ATA. On the Optiplex 780 it should be set to "RAID Autodetect / ATA"

Dell Optiplex 760 and 780: Under Performance, disable "C States Control"

VirtualBox VM should be set with ACPI and I/O APIC both enabled. For a 64-bit image, hardware virtualization will need to be turned on in the VM settings and in the host machine's BIOS

cmartineau

ASKER

Ok I tried all of those settings and I even tried some others and it is still failing to PXE. I have an identical model here and the same thing is happening with that one too. I plugged in a different machine another machine that SCCM is not even aware of and tried to PXE Boot and it worked fine but it was the older model number. I'm begining to think there is something going on with this Dell Model as others have posted issues in the past. I am going to try to create a 32-Bit OS Deployment and see if that does anything other than that the only other thing I can think of is buying a NIC for this machine and see what results I get.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Kezzi

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Kezzi

heres something interesting i found:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349350%28WS.10%29.aspx#SysprepKnownIssues

they have released a supplement for the windows 7 WAIK 3.0 tools to make it compatible with sp1 versions.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2011/02/25/windows-7-2008r2-sp1-aik-supplement-update-installation-and-information.aspx

someone mentioned that there is information (read the comments at the bottom of the first link) from Dell regarding the advanced format drives.

cmartineau

ASKER

I have a Dell technician coming out to replace the motherboard on one of the computers in the lab to see if that fixes the issue. According to the support technician this is a known issue with this model but there has not been enough reports for a recall. I want to reward you the points for helping me out, Thanks!