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2 computers, one build, 2 problems


Tripredacus

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I've got 2 identical computers. They both use the EPIA ML motherboard, and have a 60GB IDE hard drive. They both have 1GHz embedded CPU and a VIA Rhine II integrated NIC. One has a blank HDD and the other has a complete install of XP-Pro SP2 with updates and drivers installed.

So you can guess I want to capture the complete one and deploy to the blank one. So I have them boot to the network, but I get two different results...

The blank one: boots to the following STOP error:

STOP 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x844C3AD8, 0x85FB8CD4, 0x00000000)
--win32k.sys - Address 85FB8CD4 base at 85E00000 Datestamp 4549aea2

The complete one: boots to a black screen with the mouse cursor on it. You can move the cursor around...

Any clues about this? Both have a PCI (Cnet) NIC in them, and I will try booting from those and see what happens...

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Have you verified that your WinPE disc works properly on any other machines?

I am not using a WinPE disc. I use a WDS to boot from the network into the WinPE. And yes, it does work with other machines. Currently it is in a test environment, the one I outlined in my "how to" guide in another thread, so there is rarely more than 1 client computer connected to the network at a time.

We also determined that we cannot boot from USB on these units, cannot do a network boot from the PCI NIC and cannot install a CD-ROM drive into it.

Because I need to get the other drive imaged, I took its hard drive out and put it into my test client so I can image it that way.

However I'd like to keep this thread open because once my company fully switches away from Ghost to WDS, we may encounter this issue again.

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I did see that actually. Can the computer even go in standby/hibernate while in the PE?

Both of these units had their hard drives set for Cable Select.

But you should be able to get a computer to boot to the PE even if there isn't a hard drive in it. I've actually done that before...

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We also determined that we cannot boot from USB on these units, cannot do a network boot from the PCI NIC and cannot install a CD-ROM drive into it.

That's queer, I have never seen a VIA EPIA motherboard not being able to boot from USB. :w00t:

Or is it one of those third-party motherboards that use VIA C3?

What BIOS (Award or Ami) and version do the machines have?

jaclaz

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Hi,

Both of these units had their hard drives set for Cable Select.

That could be a problem in itself. Cable Select is really buggy and never really worked very well as everyone had their own way of implementing it.

Switch to using explicit Master and Slave settings on your IDE devices to ensure this is not the issue.

See this article for more information on this: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html

I don't believe that PE does support Suspend/Hibernate but if the motherboard BIOS settings differ on each PC some of the points mentioned in the MSKB article might be relevant. Check that BIOS settings are identical especially with regards to Suspend/Hibernate modes.

I assume you are not trying to image the host XP OS while it is hibernated or suspended? :-)

Bad/Faulty RAM could also be a cause of STOP errors so it might be worth testing this with suitable software (Windows Memory Diagnostic or Memtest 86+) to eliminate this as a cause of the problem.

Kind Regards

Simon

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We also determined that we cannot boot from USB on these units, cannot do a network boot from the PCI NIC and cannot install a CD-ROM drive into it.

That's queer, I have never seen a VIA EPIA motherboard not being able to boot from USB. :w00t:

Or is it one of those third-party motherboards that use VIA C3?

What BIOS (Award or Ami) and version do the machines have?

jaclaz

It used a Phoenix BIOS. We already shipped the thing so I can't go look at it. It was one of those situations where a USB key wasn't detected by the BIOS as any particular boot option, and you didn't get the ability to select a boot menu. It was not detected as either a Hard Drive, USB-HDD, USB-FDD, USB-CD-ROM or whatever other options there were. We were able to boot off a real USB floppy, and could boot off the USB key if there was no OS on the Hard Drive.

It did have an AMI DMI on it tho...

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