unable to PXE boot a Panasonic Toughbook CF-53

[sothpaw]

Hello Everyone,

 

I seem to be running into a continious loop of being unsuccessful trying to image a Toughbook CF-53 using SCCM/Config Manager 2007. If I let the computer boot into Win7, I'm able to install the SCCM Client manually and then run an advertisement no problem. The laptop will go through the image process no problem to install Win7 x64.

 

But the minute I try to run a task sequence in the WinPE environment via PXE, I don't get any network connectivity. This particular laptop uses the Intel 82579LM network card. So basically it won't do anything except restart the laptop. I've done a bunch of research on the web and it looks like other people are having the same problem with this network card (Intel 82579LM).

 

People on the web said to use the older Vista drivers of the Intel 82579LM network card, but the problem is that I can't inject those into our customer boot image because it will error out. I'm able to import them into the SCCM/Config Manager Driver Store no problem.

 

A few days ago we were able to boot off a USB thumb drive to run the task sequence no problem, but for testing purposes that's all good, but I don't really want to stick a thumb drive into a 100 of these laptops.

 

I would like to just be able to connect these laptops to the network right out of the box to image them.

 

I've also read that there's an issue with the Win AIK 3.0 and that we should upgrade to Win AIK 3.1 (but I'm not really sure, if that will solve this issue).

 

I would love some input.

[TechGuy83]

We had the same issue, after ringing Panasonic they said that they are working on a BIOS update. That was nearly year ago...

 

We gave up and went to USB boot each deployment engineer had a USB thumb drive, worked out that it added about 5 mins or so to the process not to bad.

 

Just got to weigh up the time spent looking into a solution vs the time spent getting them out there... In the end we voted for getting them out and being used.

[tnjman]

What process did you use to load the toughbooks via thumb drive? Just an ISO or expanded copy of the Windows setup DVD? If so, was it tablet-specific, or can we load Windows 7 Pro 32-bit from the standard download of our Enterprise intalls? Otherwise, were you able to somehow copy a ".WIM" file onto USB and use that? Thanks for any info!

[TechGuy83]

I created a USB bootable task sequence media.

 

To do this you need windows vista/2008 or higher. Run the configuration manager console on that machine and on your task sequence that you have created right click on it. Now click on create bootable media (can't remember exactly), follow the wizard and it will create your task sequence offline and on bootable media.

 

One tip, if it is truly offline then of course you wont be able to join domain or check for updates etc so you may want to create a new task sequence and leave these out.

 

Sorry if its a bit wrong but from memory that's how I did it. I moved jobs and no longer use sccm 2007, in my new job I am migrating from SMS 2003 to 2012! So no longer have a console for reference, however if you do get stuck let me know and I will build up a test rig and give better instruction, always fun.