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morse57

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PXE & DC not found problems

Hi Experts.

We have a weird problem here.  We image our devices using Ghostcast server & pxe boot them to launch it.  
Everything has worked well with one model of laptop but it's a different story with the next model we have tried; this is the sequence:
PXE boot OK
Ghostcast server launches
Build completes
Reboot into Windows7
Rename OK
Reboot
Attempt to join to Domain - Unable to locate a DC
Check back on reboot and PXE  boot fails with either TFTP or PXE-E11 (ARP) error and nothing can persuade the machine to boot via PXE.

If attempt to join the domain is done over WLAN, it completes as expected. It appears that something in the process has affected the wired NIC.
I've found a BIOS update which has been applied to a single laptop without improvement.

All services appear to be running and configured okay on the servers (Server 2K3) and other machine models build & join the domain normally.

We're absolutely stumped - Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks
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James Haywood
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Driver issue within your windows 7 image?
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morse57

ASKER

I think we may have solved this - we are testing now.

Thanks hhawood000 but a Windows driver wouldn't affect the PXE.

Cheers
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ASKER

The image has been sysprepped with the "generalize" switch and the newly imaged laptops have had sysprep / generalize run on them since being imaged but the NICs' on all of them are showing the same mac address.  

This appears to be the root of the problem, but the question is, "where are the nic's getting the mac address from?"  It is present in PXE even before windows boots!

Many thanks
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morse57

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Discovered myself