Are NVidia iMacs causing Group policy to fail?

[HodgeHi]

Hello,

 

I was wondering if anyone else is using the new education imacs for Windows use. If so are they having problems with Group policy or does it seem to work fine? It is only really apparent when trying to deploy Software using GPO. It looks like the Network card doesn't start in time when the client polls for the software to be deployed.

 

I had this issue with the White intel ones but this was just a case of disconnecting the network cable for 10 seconds and then re-connecting it again.

 

I have tried this but it fails to make any difference. It works for the time while it is logged in but after a restart it fails again. I can confirm this by running rsop.msc from start > run and it comes up with a exclamation mark waiting for software to deploy but needing a restart. Before this it was a red X stating the specified domain could not be found.

 

Any ideas??

 

TIA

[ajs]

I've had a similar problem with a recent batch of RM One machines using an Nvidia NForce NIC. DHCP requests took far too long, timed out but then the machine would almost instantly grab an IP if the cable was reconnected.

 

In the end I created DHCP reservations for them all and changed them to use static IPs (which isn't ideal)

 

Hopefully I'll find time soon to visit the problem again.

[ahuxham]

To be frankly honest the nForce chipset is absolutely appalling regarding NIC's

 

I had no end of problems with a motherboard with the nForce chipset, NIC's would randomly stop, wouldn't register addresses, wouldn't show in network connections, dropped connections, eventually I gave up and ditched all nForce based chipsets, specially when it came around to NIC's, and haven't looked back since.

 

On a more broad note, I found sticking other network cards worked perfectly fine, no issues at all. Might have to try that and see if the GPO's are still failing.

[HodgeHi]

I think we're forgetting that these are iMacs Oh god why oh why oh why? If it ain't broke don't fix it!!!

 

This sounds very similar to what i have noticed. DHCP takes an absolute age to obtain an IP address and can often time out before it does. Re-connection of the cable does have an immediate effect though

 

I think i may be ever so slightly screwed in this one

 

I did read a support item on MS website about removing DHCPSensing but this had no real effect. It may help with the issue on the RM ones though, but to be honest the NVidia chipset may just be real crap.

[ahuxham]

but to be honest the NVidia chipset may just be real crap.

 

I could possibly put money on this, the nForce chipset is shocking, appalling and should be avoided at all cost.

 

Indeed, I have been able to remove cable, re-insert and DHCP lease provided, its even worse for statics, dropping connection and taking ages to register as well even with a static IP address.

 

Macs got wireless? Got a spare USB wireless dongle? I can almost assure people, that trying another connection bypassing the crappyness of the nForce chipset and you're golden.

[HodgeHi]

I may just try this out. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Most appreciated.

[DMcCoy]

Google GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue

[oxide54]

we had major problems with machines with the nforce chipset, they take an age to boot windows PE off the network, where as the older machines with intel cards boot to windows pe to ghost in about 20 seconds

[richardp]

Hi, I did have 16 imacs dual booted but we had quite a few problems with them such as the time getting out of sync randomly and the headache of imaging them, that we ended up taking the decision to revert back to just OS X until the problems get sorted out. Especially as we just purchased another 14 nvidia based ones. I tried deploying MSI packages before we abandoned dual boot and never got it to work through Active Directory.

 

Richard

[sted]

Google GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue

 

its on here as well

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue"=dword:0000003c

 

is the reg file makes the pc wait longer before timing out the nic

 

but yes for a home pc nvidia are fine for schools they suck they are a pain to ghost(i can only get them to work with new versions of ghost) at the very least

[HodgeHi]

its on here as well

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue"=dword:0000003c

 

is the reg file makes the pc wait longer before timing out the nic

 

but yes for a home pc nvidia are fine for schools they suck they are a pain to ghost(i can only get them to work with new versions of ghost) at the very least

 

Having added this to a registry on one machine i can say it didn't make a blind bit of difference. I'm not too sure as to what the setting does but it didn't change anything in the start up process. It stated that it was preparing network connections for a while (which seemed about as long as before) and then said applying computer settings but as soon as it came up it disappeared.

 

Also one big note; the machines still say domain unavailable even when at the login window, if you try and log in too quick. I have only seen this when usually on a wireless network. Not with a 1gb network connection with cat6 from end to end.

 

 

Still not deploying deployed apps.Tested the same deployment on the white intel-based machines. Deployed on second boot as soon as i ran the gpupdate /force and restarted them. so it is definitely something to do with the nvidia stuff. One note also worth mentioning is also the OS X partition has similar issues in that it can take some time to pick up an IP address and also drops connections to the network and as DMcCoy knows all to well this can have disastrous results for network-based home accounts if disconnected for too long.

 

All in all i'm not too impressed with my new machines

 

I may call Apple and see what they say about the issue.

Edited September 19, 2009 by HodgeHi

[sted]

try limiting the cards to 100mb half duplex ive seen that fix problems before as well

[ajs]

There was recently an update on RM's website about some of their models which have an NVIDIA NForce NIC which matched exactly the problem of them taking forever to connect to the network and do GP stuff.

 

I imagine, although I haven't checked, that the latest driver from NVIDIA's site may be worth a shot.

[HodgeHi]

I forgot to update this thread. I eventually found an NVidia chipset update that is separate from Apple's Bootcamp drivers. I manually updated each client. As each client was updated the Software deployment from the GPO applied successfully and software was deployed. The drivers in Apple's Bootcamp seem to be out of date. Therefore i recommend updating these drivers as soon as you install XP, to alleviate any potential issues.

 

The driver I downloaded and installed was:

 

Nvidia NForce update 73.1.0.0

 

I thin kthe version installed using the bootcamp drivers was 71.x.x.x or something like that.

 

But I will check the new drivers anyway to see if they have been updated again.