Sysprep - OEM Drivers and PNF Files

[_jd_]

I've been maintaining a sysprep'd image for years now in support of ~15 desktops/notebooks, most of which use Intel display drivers.

Anyway, my current image includes Intel display drivers 14.10.3, 14.17 and 14.25 to give the required hardware support... from 845G to Q965 chipsets. I'm now adding support for two new notebooks, both of which use the mobile GM965 chipset and are not supported by the 14.25 drivers. I downloaded the latest drivers from Intel (14.29.1) that supports this chipset and added them as OEM drivers to my sysprep image. Testing reveals that the new drivers install fine on target systems, but post-image the file "igfx32.pnf" remains in the folder structure for my OEM drivers. I keep the OEM drivers below C:\sysprep, which is automatically deleted when mini-setup completes it's job. This keeps C:\ nice and clean for the user...

Anyway, i'm curious to know if anyone else has experienced issues when adding newer Intel display drivers as OEM drivers to unattended installation or sysprep'd image based on XP SP2. I tried downgrading to 14.27 but experienced the same problem. I tried deleting the .pnf file from my image but it's recreated on first boot. If I look in setuplog.txt and setuperr.log files there are entries indicating that the file could not be removed with an error code of 32... haven't been able to figure out what that means.

I just did a quick check and it looks like Intel has released newer drivers - 14.31. I'm going to give them a try.

[_jd_]

Same problem with the newer drivers (14.31). The file "igfx32.pnf" remains after imaging a device that uses a corresponding Intel display adapter. Everything else below C:\sysprep, including the directory itself, has been deleted as it should. There are no file permissions issues and all of the driver files are signed in this case so it's not waiting on an admin user to login. I don't get it.

[IcemanND]

tougher to trouble shoot this when it is happening during a sysprep setup, but some exe or dll used during the installation of the driver is holding the file open and it is believed to be in use by the os so not available to be deleted.

possibly related though I am unsure. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883667

[_jd_]

I tried to forcibly delete the .pnf file via Cmdlines.txt, but it remains. It only seems to happy with the newer Intel display drivers tho. No problem with 14.25, but of course that version doesn't support the devices I need to support.

I'm going to do a diff on the .inf's between 14.25 and 14.31. I'll take a look at the link you provided as well. Thanks.

[IcemanND]

Try Who-lock-me (http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/index.php) and see if you can find what has the file locked.

[_jd_]

Unfortunately, the file in question isn't locked post mini-setup/when I login for the first time. I checked the setupact.log/setuperr.log/setuplog.txt in C:\WINDOWS and note the following:

"Setup was unable to remove temporary file or directory C:\sysprep\Drivers\display\intel\14.29.1\Graphics\igxp32.PNF from your hard disk because of the following error: DeleteFile(C:\sysprep\Drivers\display\intel\14.29.1\Graphics\igxp32.PNF) returned error 32 (20)."

I'm done some digging on the error, particularly the numeric values noted, but have come up empty handed so far. Perhaps i'll send an email over to Intel.

[_jd_]

Well, I contacted Intel and was informed that issues re: sysprep are outside their scope of support... even tho the issue has only surfaced with v14.29 and up of their graphics drivers. If I downgrade, no problem... but the older drivers don't support some of the newer GMA devices. Doh. So, still hunting for a fix. I'm still digging for some info on the error message/number i'm seeing in setuplog.txt but have been unsuccessful so far...

[jaybot]

Any progress on the PNF, same thing happening in my image!

[_jd_]

Sorry, I haven't looked at this in a while.

Unfortunately, I haven't made any progress with the stubborn Intel .pnf file. For the Intel driver versions listed above, any system to which the image is restored ends up with the .pnf remnant below C:\sysprep (note: this directory is normally removed after mini-setup, so it irks me that it still kicking around).

jaybot: Are you experiencing this behaviour with Intel display drivers or drivers for a different device? If it's related to the Intel drivers post which versions you've included in your image. I sent you an IM as well in case you're not watching this thread.

Edited November 26, 2007 by _jd_

[jaybot]

Hey I haven't looked at this in a while.. I may have more than one driver in the image that does this

but one affected on the laptop next to me is using

DriverVer=06/05/2007,6.14.10.4837

I also have in the image

08/14/2006,6.14.10.4670 (Don't think this one has the issue)

05/16/2007, 6.14.10.4831 (Not sure)

09/20/2005,6.14.10.4396 (hmm old!)

06/21/2005, 6.14.10.4342 (old)

and I have one from 2003

[_jd_]

In my case, use of the following Intel display driver versions bring about the behaviour:

6.14.10.4864 (14.31.1)

6.14.10.4859 (14.31)

6.14.10.4833 (14.29)

Unfortunately, I have two systems (one desktop/one notebook) that must use at least 14.29 or higher... all of which leave the .pnf remnant.

I also include the following to support older chipsets:

6.14.10.4704 (14.25.0.4704)

6.14.10.4396 (14.17)

6.14.10.4342 (14.10.3)

I have observed no issues with these older Intel drivers or any of the other ~790MB of drivers included in my unattended/image.

Edited November 27, 2007 by _jd_

[_jd_]

Well, I restored my image to another test workstation but removed all of the Intel display drivers except for 14.31.1 (thinking that perhaps there was a conflict between versions). Same behaviour - the .pnf remains post mini-setup along with the same error 32 (20) in the setup logs.

[jaybot]

It is very annoying even though it doesn't seem to be breaking anything, might have to write a clean up script to run once.

[_jd_]

That's what I ended up doing. Irritating tho.