Issues with generic images
sjacobs
November 5th, 2009
I captured a Windows XP image from a computer with an Intel Processor, and I can restore to all machines that I have that have Intel, and it completes just fine, even after win xp setup. However, if I restore to a computer that has AMD, it will complete the restore, but when I reboot to start windows on the fresh machine, it brings up a blue screen and then reboots, and continues this cycle, but the blue screen is not displayed but maybe a millisecond to where I cannot read anything. Can you please help with this?
Thanks,
Shawn.
Chipsets
The problem is more than likely due to the HAL being incorrect for the chipset you are working with. To be sure it is not a mass storage driver issue, you may check your bios settings and change the SATA operation mode to ATA or legacy and see if that helps, otherwise you will need to identify the proper HAL for that machine and replace existing file with the correct HAL.DLL.
We've seen this before and
We've seen this before and have resolved it by disabling AHCI.
How do I disable AHCI, also,
How do I disable AHCI, also, how do I change the HAL?
AHCI depends on BIOS
It will depend on the BIOS the system runs. I know in Dell BIOS it's..
The STOP error may be helpful from the blue screen. Can you disable automatic reboot on the AMD system by pressing F8? If not, reimage an Intel system, go into System Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery, Settings, and uncheck 'Automatic Restart'. Gather a new Intel image and send it to an AMD system, and perhaps you'll be able to read the blue screen.
The information from the blue screen will help troubleshoot.
How do I change the HAL?
How do I change the HAL?
HAL
You will need to identify the correct HAL that will work with that machine (there are different versions, you can right click an existing working machine's hal.dll and click properties and look at the original file name which may be something like halacpi.dll). You will then have to copy that working file or extract it from the Win XP CD and replace the hal.dll of the non-working machine. You can do this using the firm command in the Altiris Automation client. Once you have the correct hal.dll in the c:\windows\system32 folder you should be able to boot just fine (assuming you aren't have a mass storage driver issue with your SATA settings).
Image Explorer is another way
Image Explorer is another way to replace the file, unless I'm missing something.
A couple of items
1. Image Explorer has been known to corrupt images if used too often to update an image.
2. Replacing the HAL in the image directly will render the image unusable for the other machines he may have in his inventory. Using the FIRM command to inject the hal.dll helps make the image more truly a hardware independent image.
AHCI is disabled, I am
AHCI is disabled, I am wondering if it has to do with the fact that since I created on an Intel machine, that on an AMD machine it is looking for the Intel processor, is that where the HAL comes in?
HAL
More than likely, yes, this is your problem. You will need to find out what HAL works for your system. I strongly recommend, after you get it to work and if you are not already, you create a new image using sysprep. That way you can inject the drivers as well as the appropriate hal and then Windows will do a minisetup and detect and install all the correct drivers for that machine. Just do a search on hii imaging and you should find a bunch of info on this topic.
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