WDS boot loop

[thedabbler]

Hey everyone 

 

Hope you are all having a good Friday and happy 10 years LTT

 

I am hoping that I can get some insight on a windows deployment server issue I am seeing. 

The company I work for has a deployment server onsite so that we can image new PCs  

The issue is I am seeing is I am able to get the new PC to boot to the server. It loads the file and then opens up windows deployment services, but before the window opens up so that I can start a deployment the PC reboots. 

 

Out of the close to 50ish computers (laptops and desktops) I have only had this happen 2 times. So it isn't a common issue but still a problem that I would like to know how to correct and prevent if it is a workflow issue which I am doubtful of.

 

The PCs are Lenovo T480's and Lenovo M710's.

 

 

[leadeater]

On 12/1/2018 at 5:06 AM, jmoles said:

The issue is I am seeing is I am able to get the new PC to boot to the server. It loads the file and then opens up windows deployment services, but before the window opens up so that I can start a deployment the PC reboots. 

Most typical cause of this is the WinPE image in WDS does not have the network drivers for the computers you have. Once you PXE a Windows environment loads and as with normal Windows you need drivers to make things work, for WDS imaging this really only needs to be network drivers and storage drivers. Most of the time you get luck and the standard drivers work fine for either of these, something you're not so lucky.

 

You need to import the required drivers in to WDS as well as inject them in the the WinPE image.

 

Scroll down to the "Much simpler solution" on this page

https://tristanwatkins.com/adding-drivers-wds-boot-images/

 

If it's not drivers then it's failing DHCP to get an IP address to talk to the WDS server, or some other kind of network issue talking to the WDS server. Too much load on the WDS server can cause this as well, large flat networks as well but that more commonly causes PXE boot issues before WinPE.

 

You can test out network issues once WinPE loads by pressing shift + f10 to get cmd up and check it's got an IP address.

[thedabbler]

On 12/2/2018 at 1:33 AM, leadeater said:

Most typical cause of this is the WinPE image in WDS does not have the network drivers for the computers you have. Once you PXE a Windows environment loads and as with normal Windows you need drivers to make things work, for WDS imaging this really only needs to be network drivers and storage drivers. Most of the time you get luck and the standard drivers work fine for either of these, something you're not so lucky.

 

Thanks for your help Leadeater. I am not sure that it is a drive issue as I have imaged over 30 of this same model prior to this one that has messed up. 

 

I will try it again and see if I can get the F10 and check the IP. 

 

The load on the WDS server should be low as this will be the only one I will be working today. 

 

I have attached a picture of where the process stops. 

 

[thedabbler]

Just wanted to update this thread. I was able to fix the issue  

I was able to get the below error just by dumb luck I guess

 

 

With this I was able to get a little more info as to what was going on and did some googling

 

I found a thread on the social.technet.microsoft.com forum credit to MDT Padawan on that site ( will add a link at the bottom) that let me know that I needed to clear the partition on the hard drive.

 

Once I completed that I was able to image the PC without issue. 

 

 

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/a9522a63-6fcf-48f2-9455-e42354a32d01/quotthe-task-sequence-has-been-suspended-litetouch-is-trying-to-install-applications-this-cannot?forum=mdt

 

 

 

[leadeater]

16 hours ago, jmoles said:

I found a thread on the social.technet.microsoft.com forum credit to MDT Padawan on that site ( will add a link at the bottom) that let me know that I needed to clear the partition on the hard drive.

 

Once I completed that I was able to image the PC without issue. 

Nice find, I've always wiped the partitions and created them as part of my TS so it's unlikely I would have thought of that

[thedabbler]

Yea I am not sure if I would have been able to figure it out without that error that decided to show up randomly. 

 

I have the issue happening with a desktop so I am hoping to see if it is the same fix.