Lucid

How is your client "build" different than your client "rebuild"? I think you're going to have to give more info if you're wanting info from the forum...

Just tossing this out there... What happens if you install the Dell OMCI client on your machines, and then try to use that to adjust the BIOS setting BEFORE you deploy the new OS package? Oh, and since you're going to be using SCCM, you might have better luck asking in one of the SCCM subforums...

Yeah, those steps are the fallback to make sure it's not the fault of a flakey third-party utility. Have you tried creating a test boot image and generating boot media from that? Just to verify that you can boot a machine and PING something on the network.

Are you using the same boot image that you used to set up PXE? How are you extracting it to the USB drive? Here are some steps you can try (sorry about the formatting): 1.Attach an empty USB key to a machine, and then boot it using your SCCM Image Installation CD. 2.When it finishes loading everything, press the F8 key (assuming you enabled command line support in your boot image). 3.Enter the following commands to prepare the USB key: a.DISKPART b.LIST DISK i.identity the disk number of the USB key (normally it should show up as DISK 1). c.SELECT DISK 1 i.assuming the USB key is DISK 1 d.CLEAN e.CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY f.ACTIVE g.FORMAT FS=FAT32 h.ASSIGN LETTER=E i.EXIT 4.Copy the files from the SCCM Image Installation CD to the USB key with the following command: a.XCOPY D:\*.* /S /E /F E:\ i.assuming D:\ is your CD drive and E:\ is the USB key 5.Test the USB key by ejecting your SCCM Image Installation CD, restarting the computer, and booting from the attached USB key.

You've got a good start. First break everything down into psuedo code so you know what chunks you need to learn. And you might have better luck asking in a scripting forum than here. Also, if you're looking into making a little tool, you might look at .HTA files. These allow you to combine VBScript, JavaScript, and HTML. So you can make pretty little wrappers around all your code (so your tool could look like a normal Windows wizard). And don't forget to use your favorite search engine. If I plug in "VBScript" "Active Directory" "Roaming Profile" I get quite few hits with sample code that could be tested...

Here's a VBScript code snippet that might help: strScriptFileDirectory = objFSO.GetParentFolderName(wscript.ScriptFullName) WinDir = objWshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%windir%") If objFSO.FileExists (strScriptFileDirectory & "\MyFile.txt") Then objFSO.CopyFile (strScriptFileDirectory & "\MyFile.txt"), (WinDir & "\Folder1\SubFolder2\MyFile.txt"), True End If You'll need to mess with variables or drop back to hard-coded paths, but see if that helps get you started...

It depends. Do you reuse the previous resource object in SCCM, or have your imaging processes create a new one? And it's also going to depend on how your memberships are set up - the new system would have to meet whatever criteria you've put in place to recieve the advertisement. And of course, it's going to depend on what settings you use in the advertisement itself too (always rerun, never rerun, etc...). Of course, the easiest way to test it is to note the resource ID of an existing machine, then image it and see what resource ID it picks up and what happens with your advertisements...

Since that's a third party tool, and I wouldn't rely on it to have the client check for updated package versions, if it were me, I'd just kill that advertisement (or if I wanted to keep the logs, target it at an empty collection) and create a new advertisement. That way there's no confusion on any settings or package versioning.

You need to add a section to format and partition the disk before you apply the operating system...

Have you checked the log files sitting on the failed capture machine?

Just ran across this post and thought I'd toss this out there for whatever it's worth... We use VBScript wrappers, but for applications like those, we put the log file in the TEMP directory. So try putting it there. Also, does it work if you leave out the portion to create the log file? Lastly, what happens if you put quotes around the paths?

You don't have a C "drive", you have a C "partition". So you're probably going to have to wipe that 100MB partition as well, and then create a new partition. If you can share your commands that you're currently using to wipe the drive, someone can probably chime in with specifics...

I'd just leave the software installed and remove your GPO; letting SCCM take over management of the machine. After you get the SCCM client installed on a machine, once it reports the Hardware Inventory information back to the central server, SCCM is smart enough to know what's installed. After that, it's up to you to structure your collections and advertisements correctly. Before doing anything I'd deploy the SCCM client to all my machines so I could begin gathering information - before I messed with my GPOs. After that, say you're pushing Adobe Reader, I'd set the GPO not to do anything once the GPO is deleted. Then I'd wait a bit and then kill the GPO. After that, I'd make an SCCM collection that contains all my healthy and active machines (we base ours off the last date of the Hardware Scan - you can pick whatever works best for your environment). Then I'd create a second collection for Adobe Reader, limiting it to my "healthy" collection. select * from SMS_R_System where SMS_R_System.ResourceID not in (select SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.ResourceID from SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS where SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.DisplayName = "Adobe Reader 10.0.1" and SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.Version = "10.0.1") Using a dynamic colleciton like this means that if the machine has an older (or newer) version of the listed app, my advertisement will try to install - I set my adverts to always reinstall and allow my collection query to do the work - this way if someone removes a piece of software it'll get put back on. Keep in mind that you might have to tweak your queries if you've got both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows machines...

Are you using an "Unattend.xml" file as part of the OS task sequence? If so, check the time zone settings within there to make sure they're set correctly. You might also check the BIOS settings to see what they're reading...

You might boot up with your WinPE SCCM boot disc and (if you have command support enabled) press F8 and use the DISKPART command to wipe out the existing partitions. I've seen some oddities where the drive needed to be repartitioned and formatted. Also, make sure you're running the latest BIOS from Dell...

Are you using a VMWare Workstation as the reference machine to be captured? If so, was it allocated enough RAM? And have you tried looking into the log files to see what's taking so long? It almost sounds like something is erroring out, and the processes are waiting until it times out. Maybe set some timeouts in your task sequence for known items? Just some thoughts off the top of my head... Oh, and you might get more responses if you post within the XP forum: http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/forum/58-deploy-xp/

Did you check out the pinned items at the top of the XP forum? http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/forum/58-deploy-xp/

What about making a web report and putting that in an easily accessible location (on an Intranet site, have a logon script make a desktop shortcut, place a link out in a network folder, etc..). If you've got the rights configured correctly you don't have to have the console installed in order to run a web report...

My batch file scripting is too rusty, so if you're not stuck on that, here's some quick VBScript code to do what you're looking for: Option Explicit Dim objWshShell, RegExp, objWMIService, colNetAdapters, objItem, strSubnetCheck Set objWshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\cimv2") Set RegExp = new RegExp RegExp.IgnoreCase = true strSubnetCheck = "unknown" Set colNetAdapters = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Where IPEnabled=True") For Each objItem In colNetAdapters RegExp.pattern = "10.5" If (RegExp.test (objItem.IPSubnet(0)) = TRUE) Then strSubnetCheck = "OnSubnet" End If Next If UCase(strSubnetCheck) = UCase("OnSubnet") Then objWshShell.Run("http://www.windows-noob.com") End If Wscript.Quit

If it needs a "setup.iss" file, then it sounds like an InstallShield app: http://www.itninja.com/blog/view/installshield-setup-silent-installation-switches If so, essentially you kick off the installation on a test machine with the "/r" (record) switch. You perform the installation, and when done, the "setup.iss" file should reside in C:\windows

Just my two cents... Use your favorite web design app to mock up and make the look and feel (sometimes I use PhotoShop first to get the look down, then convert to web). When done, switch to code view and copy that code over to Notepad (or Notepad++) and make it more "code friendly" depending on how your editor does formatting. When testing, put the .HTA file out on a network share, and in WinPE, press the F8 key to bring up a command window, and then use NET USE to map a network drive to the share containing your .HTA file. That way you can make modifications to the .HTA file on your workstation, and kick it off right away on a test WinPE machine. Also, if your HTA manipulates Active Directory or the SCCM database, keep in mind that you might have to connect a little differently because WinPE isn't bound to your domain...

It's been awhile, but I thought there was some sort of BIOS adjustment for the hard drive that needed to be made on some of the Dell models. Like I said, it's been awhile since I've done XP, but poke around in the BIOS settings and see if that helps (make a note to write down the current settings so you can reset things when you're done)...

What do you mean when you say you "deploy the device"? That you've captured an OS, and have imaged a machine with it? And you say that computers for the B&C are moved out of an OU after? Why is this? Typically you should only need a single machine to capture your OS images unless you've got a wide variety of hardware (with different HALs) floating around, and shouldn't need to do anything to them post-capture. Maybe try expanding a little on the info in your post and someone can help.

You may have to create an Auto Apply Drivers item in your OS task sequence before the generic "Apply Device Drivers" item that is limited to a category containing the known good driver. What might be happening is that the machine is picking up a NIC driver it "thinks" is the right one, and thus not continuing to search the driver repository any further. You'll probably need to use a WMI filter for the specific model to ensure that it doens't cause problems with yet other models. For example, to filter things so that only a Dell Latitude E6420 would initiate the section, you could use a filter query like this: select * from Win32_ComputerSystem where Model like "%E6420%"

Have you resolved your problem? If not, you may want to temporarily disable any user state actions and ensure that you can deploy your Windows 7 image out to a machine. once you know all that works, then you can tackle USMT. And have you checked out the guides pinned to the top of the USMT forum? http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/forum/78-usmt/