SIS 900 LAN and Group Policy = BAD COMBO! Help!

[CM786]

Hi guys,

 

As part of my IT overhaul I have updated the ram in some old machines we have that have AsRock Motherboards and SIS Chipsets, running a Duron 1.2ghz with (now) 736Mb of DDR Ram.

 

This is the motherboard:

http://www.asrock.com/product/K7S41GX.htm

 

I know the SIS LAN chipsets are troublesome, but I don't seem to be able to find a solution, yet I read about fellow geeks finding a way round it.

 

The problem is that computer based group policies are not being applied.

 

In my AD structure I have a group called Class PCs which applys some software installation policies on computers in the group. This works fine on the newer PCs I have (with nForce LAN or Realtek), but with the SIS-based computers the policies do not seem to apply. The computer policies in question are to install Open Office, install Clicker 5 and install SmartNotebook. By using the group policy modelling wizard I can see that they are being applied as far as the server is concerned, but when the computers with the sis chipsets boot up, the installing managed software bit doesn't appear.

 

The user group policies work fine however.

 

The PCs are runnning Windows XP SP2 and I cannot remember if they are running the lan driver that came with Windows or the one from the AsRock website.

 

I have tried the old favourite of gpupdate /force but no joy.

 

I know the group policies work properly becuause they work on other PCs in the group.

 

Any help appreciated!

 

Thanks

cm786

[plexer]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/100-x-pci-intel-pro-network-cards-10-100_W0QQitemZ180014492588QQihZ008QQcategoryZ51195QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

 

Ben

[CM786]

 

Very funny mate...

 

It can't be that bad can it???

 

I have found an updated SIS LAN driver here:

http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/sis900.html

 

I really need to get this sorted tommorow, since I am supposed to be finished tommorow for the summer, but not if I can't get these damn computers working properly.

 

If the worst comes to the worst, I can just add the software to the computer image, but I'd rather the group policies worked properly.

[meastaugh1]

If the updated driver does not work, then I think a workaround (if I'm thinking of the same issue) is to change an autosense/detect setting for the adapter in the registry. I think it was either a problem detecting the connection was present, or autosensing the media speed. Sorry, can't be more specific.

[ajbritton]

I made mine work by using the driver supplied with XP SP2. There are registry you can mess with and these have helped some times, but reverting to the MS supplied driver has always worked for me.

[ajbritton]

I'm curious...

 

1 - Are you seeing KERBEROS errors in the event logs on the affected PCs?

 

2 - Are you running Sophos AntiVirus? The reason I ask this is that I could only reliably recreate the problem after install the Sophos AV client.

[CM786]

WORRYINGLY I have another school that I am supposed to visit at the end of August that has a whole itsuite of SIS 900 LAN adapters... :twisted:

 

Anyway...

 

Just off to work now, so the first thing I am going to do is rollback the driver to the standard XP SP2 one as suggested by ajbrittion; (I think I have installed the one off the AsRock website) and hope it works, otherwise I'll try the new driver.

 

@ajbritton - not running sophos, and will check PC event log.

 

Thanks for the help so far....

[BKGarry]

We Did have this problem here to begin with, and then we fixed it with one nice and simple move. Disable to Windows XP SP2 firewall, for some reason it stops GPUPDATE's on the SIS900's for some strange reason.

 

Go on give it a shote.

 

Gaz

[CM786]

I'm sure I turned the firewall off, but I'll check...cheers

[ajbritton]

We Did have this problem here to begin with, and then we fixed it with one nice and simple move. Disable to Windows XP SP2 firewall, for some reason it stops GPUPDATE's on the SIS900's for some strange reason.

 

Go on give it a shote.

 

Gaz

 

Interesting. I might try that next time I hit the problem. For the record, though, on the sites where I've had SIS900 trouble and fixed it with the XP SP2 driver, I have NOT had to disable the firewall. I usually configure the firewall with GP, opening the odd port here and there for things like Sophos, NetOp and UltraVNC.

[patshaw101]

We've had exactly the same problem with one of the Schools that I manage. Suites full of PC's with SIS900 NIC's and I couldn't get the KS3ICTPilot DPS to push out via Group Policy.

 

Both Microsoft and SIS do drivers for SIS900. The solution for us was to change back to the earlier Microsoft driver rather than the SIS driver that installs by default.

 

We had another problem that I couldn't figure if it was related or not - our DNS server showed orphaned SSID's rather than computer names in the security tab of DNS entries. So we ran ipconfig /flushdns and ipconfig /registerdns on the clients. This seemed to resolve our problem.

 

Try the above. If it doesn't work - post details of event log errors - they may give hints to the source of your problem...

[CM786]

Both Microsoft and SIS do drivers for SIS900. The solution for us was to change back to the earlier Microsoft driver rather than the SIS driver that installs by default.

 

 

YES!!!! Its working!!

 

The firewall was on actually, but turning it off made no difference. I then rolled back the driver to the earlier microsoft version (1.12 instead of the 1.16 which was installed) and after a gpupdate /force the software is installing as I type!!

 

Thanks for the help and also welcome to patshaw101, you were spot on!

[patshaw101]

No problem. In the nick of time for your summer break as well. Have a good one.

[Gatt]

Ah the SIS900 - the bain of my life here at Moorside

I end up using the Microsoft Driver, but am now trying to get the beancounters here at the school to release me the cash needed to buy 150+ 3COM cards that i know work and are also PXE compliant - unlike the SIS900's

 

My advise - if its a SIS900 - get a new NIC!!

[ajbritton]

@CM786 - I would still be interested to know if you were seeing Kerberos errors in the event logs on the PCs. I've had Kerberos errors on every PC which has displayed the SIS900 problem.

[Gatt]

cant mind off hand what errors i got - but were along the lines of USERENV's and errors relating to GPO settings being aborted when trying to be processed.

 

Rolling back to MS's version (2001 IIRC) does help but not guaranteed.

[john]

well you could get the eBay cards, I am tempted for if I am ever so lucky to come across these SIS cards. As I always build PCs from the parts and spec them well, I never use SIS boards ever as they have never been wonderful.

[mac_shinobi]

ok go here :

 

http://www.sis.com/download/

 

click on windows xp or whatever platform ( I am assuming windows xp ) and then select network driver and then the sis 900

 

download the zip and install it :

 

if you need more help let me know ( We have some sis 900's at the place I work at )

 

no issues with any gp updates or any of that

[patshaw101]

Ah the SIS900 - the bain of my life here at Moorside

I end up using the Microsoft Driver, but am now trying to get the beancounters here at the school to release me the cash needed to buy 150+ 3COM cards that i know work and are also PXE compliant - unlike the SIS900's

 

My advise - if its a SIS900 - get a new NIC!!

 

Incidentally, we had PXE boot compatibity issues as well with the SIS900. My supplier was able to get a BIOS firmware update that made the SIS900 PXE compliant. I'm at home at moment so couldn't give you specifics but I do know the motherboard is a foxconn. Respond if you want further details. I agree that the SIS900 isn't the best NIC in the world but if you can make it do PXE-boot, you might save some cash?

[kingswood]

There's some boot ROM code here if it will help:

 

http://www.nodevice.com/driver/company/SIS.html

 

Paul