Deployment Solution

Our environment has been working without issue for quite a while now, and even now, when we boot a computer to the PXE menu, all the options are there and work.

However, we just received in a new model laptop (Lenovo X200 - we actually have other X200's that work fine, but this is a different model number of that same series).  When I turn it on and boot from network, it finds all the same information that the other computers do - DHCP, PXE Server, etc. - but then throws an error:

PXE-E74 bad or missing pxe menu and or prompt information

The computer is on the same subnet - in fact, I used the same network cable/port to check.  All workstations/laptops are using DHCP.

I've done some searching and see some suggestions about the ports on the DHCP server, but if they were off, wouldn't all the computers be experiencing the same error?

I even took one of our old decommissioned computers and put it back on the network to image, just to make sure it wasn't an issue with a 'new' computer that wasn't in the Deployment Server yet.  That one went through it's entire process no problems.

I don't really understand why this could be happened when any other computer I try this on is working.

Thanks for any guidance you can provide.

Give a look at Article ID: 17952

https://kb.altiris.com/display/1n/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=17952&r=0.3729059

Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, that was one of the links that I had been to.  We are currently on version 6.9 (which meets the suggestion for upgrading to 6.8), Option 43 is not enabled on the DHCP server and as far as the installation being corrupt, I would assume if that was the case, I'd be having the problem on all computers, not just these 2 new ones that came in (both the same model).  We even have other X200's, just a different model number.

Very strange.

Thanks again, though, for the response.

I had assumed it might be due to the Option 43 (vendor specific), which is why I posted the link.

Have you compared BIOS versions between the working vs. non-working X200's?

Also compare BIOS settings.  Sometimes NIC's can be setup to not use PXE but use a vendor proprietary imaging server.

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across ungrateful - I appreciated the link.  I was just going over the facts, and what my results were.

I checked the BIOS actually, and there were no PXE-specific options.

I've thought of something, which I'm going to look into tomorrow, but it's that a compatible NIC driver for this laptop may not be present in the boot disk setup.  Fingers crossed that resolves it.

I've seen this problem before in two scenarios,

• Too many options within PXE menu (there is a text limit on the PXE options field)
•  Bad PXE BIOS code

You'd think that if it was an overloaded PXE boot menu, that all machines would give this error. However (to my recollection) the PXE client behavior varies. So, if you have lots of PXE boot options, just try removing any redundant ones and see if that restores service. I can't remember the total number of characters allowed in the boot menu, but something around 200 springs to mind.

Next, whenever I get an isolated PXE problem, my first port of call is to upgrade the BIOS. If that doesn't work, try downgrading. If you get success downgrading, contact the vendor and see if this is a known issue on the latest BIOS release.

Kind Regards,
Ian./

Never thought you were ungrateful.  Was just pointing out the specific item in the article as the reason I posted.  No worries.

Ian, I thought that as well when I found the below link but had dismissed it when he said that it was working on other equipment.  Now that you bring it up again, I think it is possible that a particular BIOS or two may have "memory" issues when dealing with more characters, similar to how a Windows environment sometimes has problems with a folder structure with names that are paragraphs.

http://www.altirigos.com/vbulletin/network-pxe-dhcp-nics-multicasting/4121-pxe-error-pxe-e74.html

Okay, so adding the new DOS driver didn't work.  Shucks.

We've looked to see if there's an older or newer version of the BIOS, but unfortunately none posted for download.  The model we just got in (Lenovo x200 - Model# 745432U) is brand new.

We only have 8 PXE options, but we're going to try shortening the names of them.  Although I would figure this to effect ALL computers, it can't hurt to try.

Thanks again guys.

Found some older BIOS downloads, and sure enough, that worked.  Went down 1 version, and now PXE is recognizing it.

Thanks for all the assistance.

You may want to contact your vendor and make sure they are aware of this so that the next BIOS release addresses the issue.  Glad your issue is resolved.

BIOS downgrades are a pain, but sometimes its the only way.

As Bhawver says, worth now raising this upto Lenovo support.

While your at it, see if you can ask them why HP and Dell machines look lovely in DS, but Lenovo's don't because they duplicate the  "product name" with the  "model number". Not being able to see Lenovo's in DS with the human readable "Lenovo x200" is a bit of a pain in the behind.... I've questioned this with no response. If more people question it, then perhaps they might get the point.... ;-)

Kind Regards,
Ian./ 
  

Thank you so much for this post.  We were able to workaround the PXE boot issue with the Lenovo X200 based on the advice from this post to downgrade the BIOS.  We just received the Lenovo T410 and T510 and are running into the same problem.  We have tried downgrading the BIOS but still get the same error message.  Has anyone else run into the same problem with the T410 and T510 and have found a workaround?

Regards,
PCGirl

The Lenovo bios utilities, specifically Winphlash if I recall correctly, give you access to other parameters in the bios such as asset tagging options. Some of the field definitions in this area don't make a lot of sense, especially when you use WMI to retrieve this bios-held information.

It may therefore be worth spending an hour or two playing around with the strings that define aspects of the Lenovo kit to see if you can get a configuration that looks more sensible in PXE.

Hi PCGirl,

As this post has been solved, you'd be better off posting this as a new thread (otherwise you run the risk of people browsing the forums missing it)

Kind Regards,
Ian./