Ghost 11.5.1, PXE, WinPE 2.0 & network driver issues

[CHiLL]

Basically, I'm having issues with some drivers using WinPE 2.0 (Vista based).

 

We used to use PC-DOS PXE booting for a while, and that worked. But some RM models with Nvidia network cards weren't supported, so we tried using WinPE instead. This initially worked very well, inserting drivers into the WinPE image for network cards not supported. However we have some new Fujitsu models are having problems with timeouts over the network. The Fujitsu Esprimo E3521 uses the RTL8111DL NIC and the Fujitsu Esprimo E400 uses the RTL8111E NIC, though both use the same family of drivers from Realtek's website. The E3521 doesn't have Vista drivers on Fujitsu's website, only Windows 7, but the Vista drivers for the E400 works on them both, but they both have the exact same issue.

 

When taking an image of the PC across the network, we're getting timeout errors: Error 503. Connection timed out with Ghost code 19945. We've checked the list of solutions and determined it is a driver issue rather than hardware or network. (Other computers such as RMs still Ghost fine from the same point and we can take an image to an external hard drive (ruling out computer hardware).

 

I'm basically looking for advice on where to go next, or for driver support, or what.

 

Is there any way to use WinPE 3.0 in ghost, instead of 2.0, or is that too convoluted?

 

Edit;

 

We have been able to bypass the Ghost server and send the ghost image directly to a NAS drive, and that worked. So I'm pretty stumped at the moment.

Edited June 21, 2012 by CHiLL

[Zourous]

Hi there, I see you have Fujitsu Esprimo E3521 desktops at your place. We've had them now for a year and a half and there seems to be an intermittant fault with the fans going off at high speed. This happens sometimes at the boot which prevents them booting and sometimes whilst they are in use. We've called in Fujitsu support as they are still under warranty, but often they will just start working again before the engineer gets here. Have you had similar experiences with yours?

[CHiLL]

Hi there, I see you have Fujitsu Esprimo E3521 desktops at your place. We've had them now for a year and a half and there seems to be an intermittant fault with the fans going off at high speed. This happens sometimes at the boot which prevents them booting and sometimes whilst they are in use. We've called in Fujitsu support as they are still under warranty, but often they will just start working again before the engineer gets here. Have you had similar experiences with yours?

Hey. I'm no longer at that place, but I can say we did encounter those issues, and also had to call out Fujitsu engineers under warranty. Out of about 100, we only had about 3 with the issue were it simply happened every time. I think it was an issue with the motherboard, as the engineer swapped the boards in all of them and that sorted it.However all of them did randomly do it at some point, and power cycling them sorted it. We never got to the bottom of it.

Edited January 30, 2013 by CHiLL

[Zourous]

Yep, sounds about right. Thanks for the reply. I think we are stuck with these problems. We only brought around 35 of them so it could be worst.