Drivers not applying during OSD...need suggestions for troubleshooting

[h4x0r]

I have a few Dell Lattitude E5550's that are new to our organization, and I dropped our image on one to see what devices I needed drivers for (turns out, A LOT). In either case, after downloading drivers from Intel and Dell, verified that they are correct for the hardware, and added them to CM like I always have...I re-imaged the workstation, but it still had a ton of devices without drivers. I thought this was odd...so I checked my WMI query, and it was good...I even set a single step in the TS to simply apply all drivers (unattended install of unsigned drivers was checked as well), but I still got the same result.

 

So what to do at this point? Searching returns mostly articles regarding how to add drivers to CM, or driver "strategies", but not many address this issue. I found a similar post on these forums in which the NIC driver needed to be added to the boot.wim, but I already have that added.

 

I just need ideas on what to troubleshoot, or what logs to look at...because, frankly, applying drivers in CM has always worked for me and I've never had to troubleshoot this

 

I'm going to apply a driver package in the TS instead of the Apply Drivers step to see if that makes any difference...so here's hoping.

 

Thanks!

[anyweb]

have you verified the driver package source version is version 2 or greater ?

[h4x0r]

When I've added drivers to CM, I create the driver package as well (old habbit from CM2007), though I never "use it" in that I have only ever used the Auto Apply Drivers step in the TS. So to this end, I have never messed with updating the DP's on the driver packages past their initial creation. So please tell me if I'm understanding your suggestion...are you suggesting that I update the DP on the driver package for the workstation, even though I had been using the Auto Apply Drivers step?

 

I've got the workstation on my work bench now, and it is imaging using a TS with the Apply Driver Package step instead of the Auto Apply Drivers to see if that has any bearing on the situation.

 

Naill, I'm also curious what methodology you use for applying device drivers...do you use the Auto Apply or Driver Package method (both cases filtered by WMI)?

[h4x0r]

As an update to this, the Apply Driver Package step appears to have fixed (at least part of) the issue. It is currently installing software, which is further than it had been making it previously.

[h4x0r]

Wow...so scratch what I said previously...I thought applications were installing, but apparently not. I had forgotten that I had enabled apps to continue installing when there was an error, so it was just cycling through the list (I didn't think it was getting that far previously, but I was wrong apparently). BUT, this is what I get for too much multi-tasking...it actually ran the old OSD rather than my new test TS using the driver package...feeling a little like an idiot.

 

Will test again (this time with the proper OSD TS) and report back.

[h4x0r]

I can confirm that using the Install Driver Package step installed the drivers. So then my questions stands...what could cause drivers to install for the Install Driver Package step, but not Auto Apply Drivers?

[arricc]

We had so many mixed results with auto apply drivers and Dell machines we now use the generational driver packs and specific packs for new models and when we have issues from Dell Community imported as SCCM packages with appropriate WMI filters.

 

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/enterprise-client/w/wiki/2065.dell-command-deploy-driver-packs-for-enterprise-client-os-deployment

[h4x0r]

There is a certain level of convenience offered by the Dell driver packs, but I have always had issues with how bloated they were...hence why I try to get the drivers directly from the mfg. At this point I will probably be moving to driver deployment via Driver Package in CM.