Dell Latitude 3190 PXE booting.

[mnaim]

Hello,

 

I am an apprentice within IT and I need some assistant. (I do not know much technical terms yet as I am still learning so please be advised).

 

We have Dell Latitude 3190 laptops at my workplace which were given to us by the DfE during Covid-19 time to deploy for home working/learning. We still have 12 of these in my office, which we plan to deploy using an IpV4 network boot. We have brought a LAN to USB adapter as these laptops do not have ethernet ports on them. I then went into the BIOS and enabled the network stack as I had been told too. The only issue is, Once enabling this and going back to the F12 boot up, it only shows Windows Boot Manager. It will not allow me to boot in any other mode. I have even enabled boot with USB and changed the fastboot options as was advised. I am stuck. I am not sure what to do. On normal DELL desktops, I have noticed there was additional options that allowed it to PXE boot that doesn't seem to be on this BIOS?

 

Could I please get some support please. Thank you.

[Aprice]

These are quite fussy with USB network adapters, provided the BIOS settings are correct it should give you the option to PXE boot from USB network adapter.

We've found they don't work with the Microsoft Surface adapters, but do with an Anker USB C one, that then has a converter on to USB A

I'll check what's set on the BIOS for one I've got in the office

Edited January 16, 2023 by Aprice

[IRL]

They are also fussy to which USB port you use the adapter in as well.

[Aprice]

Might be wrong about this but in the BIOS under Settings - General - Boot Sequence.

 

Does USB NIC (IPV4) show up under Windows Boot Manager?

 

Other things to check:

Settings - General - Advanced boot Options - Enable UEFI Network Stack

 

If that still doesn't work my guess is the adapter you have isn't compatible. There's also this thread about this issue

[mnaim]

Hi,

 

Thank you for the response and checking for me! Unfourtently No. Nothing shows up under Windows Boot Manager. I have enabled UEFI Network Stack before hand and still same issue. The LAN to USB A adapter we have here is a UGREEN one which one of my colleagues had given me. This adapter worked perfectly for a geobook PXE boot I had done. I am just having issues with the Dell laptops. IRL I have tried using it on both of the USB ports on the laptop, it still has not worked. I will look at that thread, thank you.

[Boredguy]

The LAN - USB adaptor that works on the GeoBooks is unlikely to work on the Dell 3190's in our experience.

 

We have UNI USB-LAN adaptors which work on all our non Geo-book devices as it has a Realtek chip in it. Our Geobooks use a StarTech adaptor that has a AX88179 chip and that does not detect on the Dells.

[icttech]

We had a similar issue and had to buy the Dell adaptors.

 

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-adapter-usb-30-to-ethernet-pxe-boot/apd/470-abbt/networking

 

Also, check the bios settings as @Aprice mentioned, as some settings would need changing to allow PXE Boot

[icttech]

Found this thread on Dell Website - https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000131551/bios-settings-to-allow-pxe-boot-on-newer-model-dell-latitude-laptops

 

Explains what settings need changing.

[KK20]

echoing the above, we found it hard to get USB adapters that suited all. I have three on the shelf here we use USB21000S2 SMSC7500 chipset for the surface and some dell (small XPS). We also have USB31000S 88179 chipset that work on some latitudes. We also have a toshiba USB3 dock that will PXE boot, that was used for older latitudes.

[IRL]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rankie-Network-Adapter-Gigabit-Black/dp/B010SEARPU

We use these on ours.

[mnaim]

Hi IRL, that is the exact one my colleague used when he tried this on the same DELL laptop and it has showed the USB NIC (IPV4) boot for him. Thank you all for the help. I am guessing it is the LAN to USB adapter and I will most likely borrow his until I am done building all the laptops.

[jmak]

As a workaround you can create a USB WinPE boot disk (which you create in your imaging system) and usually includes the necessary network drivers. You then stick the USB ethernet adaptor in and deploy the image as normal.

 

I used that method for Microsoft Surface Pros as they will only PXE boot from Microsoft adaptors which I definitely couldn't afford!