WinPE via MDT - NIC Driver Not Loading

[CHiLL]

We use MDT/WDS (not SCCM/MECM). I have a HP 255 G7 that uses a Realtek Gigabit NIC and I have downloaded the latest driver that I can find (11.26.2025), which have been injected into the image via MDT. I am using ADK 10.1.28000.1 and I'm finding that when I create the boot image and PXE boot the 255 G7, it just will not load the drivers automatically.

 

I can see that the driver files are in the WinPE image in "X:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\rt640x64.inf_amd64_bd817c207848a1d7".

If I run "wmic nic get name", I get the result "No Instance(s) Available."

If I use drvload directly and point to the inf file, the NIC will then load as expected and I can start MDT.

 

AI suggests this is because pnp cannot load the hardware and thus detect it to install the driver, implying that Realtek devices tend to go to sleep before the OS loads and then can't be detected.

 

I don't know how to automate this or the best way to achieve what I'm trying to do.

[ColonelPanic]

Hey Chill,

Have you tried injecting it into the winpe.wim file using powershell? Apparently adding the "/ForceUnsigned" flag will get it to load even if the hardware.

Something like this:

dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:"WinPE.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:"mount"
dism /Image:"mount" /Add-Driver /Driver:"rt640x64.inf" /ForceUnsigned
dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"mount" /Commit


Always worth a try. I'm always having random driver injection issues, although we are using SCCM/MECM

[CHiLL]

1 hour ago, ColonelPanic said:

Hey Chill,

Have you tried injecting it into the winpe.wim file using powershell? Apparently adding the "/ForceUnsigned" flag will get it to load even if the hardware.

Something like this:

dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:"WinPE.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:"mount"
dism /Image:"mount" /Add-Driver /Driver:"rt640x64.inf" /ForceUnsigned
dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"mount" /Commit


Always worth a try. I'm always having random driver injection issues, although we are using SCCM/MECM

Unfortunately, I have tried that. I believe it's being caused because when WinPE loads, it cannot detect the hardware and thus it has nothing to load a driver for.