Difficulties acquiring network address

[fhey]

Hello all,

Having kind of a strange problem on a few of my machines. First off, I use Altiris rapidinstall to distrubte computer images to machines. I have alot of machines to look after, so having some require special attention - ie: static IP addresses isn't an option for me.

The image I use seems to work great, I use it all the time on my Latitudes and yet a few that I come accross now when I image them the network card seems to deny that its working - it won't acquire a network address. Now, I know the card works because I can ping localhost just fine, I can receive an image accross the network just fine and if I install Windows from scratch it works fine. Yet when I image a few of the machines the network card just stops operating properly once windows loads, it won't find the Novell server. If I force it in as Workstation only it connects up until the point of Acquiring Network address where it will hang forever. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the card, I've updated the drivers many times - I've pulled the drivers off machines that work with the exact same hardware - and still nothing.

Really not quite sure what's going wrong - the image works on so many of the other machines and I know the hardware works in a pre-windows environment or in a fresh windows environment, but on select machines the image refuses to let them connect (wirelessly or wired).

Kind of at my wits end on this one - since technically if I rebuilt windows these ones as special I doubt dell would take them back as non-working.

I noticed this problem previously with one optiplex machine in a lab. For years it worked fine accepting the image - and yet it suddenly did the same thing I described above with the Latitude series.

I know its kind of an odd and very specific problem, but anyone have any ideas?

 

[nessus]

if I install Windows from scratch it works fine.

There is a problem with your image if a clean re-install works. You don't mention any model numbers. Are your images only having problems on the newer dual cores? Are you using one image for all models, or model specific builds? What is your prep sequence for your images?

 

[fhey]

On the laptop side its Latitudes - the base image is at D600, the new machines are D820. This I could understand somewhat if it was just this. On the first D820 I imaged it with the D600 image, then went to Dell's driver site and downloaded and installed all the D820 drivers until everything in the device manager is happy. When the laptop works devicewise I apply all the windows / software patches that have come out.

When the machine appears to work flawless I capture the image to the server. I will then distrubute this image back to the same laptop, if it still works I will try it on the next. This is where it got hung up this time, It worked when it was sent back to the one it was created on, it did not work on the 2nd one.

However - on the other side of the fence - the desktops. We have optiplexes of 8 or so different flavors so to speak and each one has its own image. The original of it was built up from the previous one until all the drivers are clean and updated and all the software is as well - that's the beauty of the Optiplex/Latitude lines is they keep things pretty upgradeable as such. The GX280 is the one in question that is acting odd. This image existed even before I started here and has been used by me and my predecessor hundreds of times. It is only recently - the last - hrmm... 2 months or so - that this machine refuses to work with the image. I've used the same image on the other 31 machines of the exact same model in the same lab - but one of them does the same thing. Won't acquire an ip address with that image but if I build it from scratch it will...

 

[nessus]

Are you sysprepping your images?