Problem using PXE Boot for Optiplex 780

I am having the exact same problem, and I would appreciate any insight someone might have.

Thanks!

Lisa

We to have this problem, we have tried different PXE and TFTP servers but without luck.

Got in touch with Dell and they had not heard about this.

Ryan,

I am having the same problem with the 780's. I called Dell today (12/8/09) and they are having their engineers call me in 24 - 48 hours. I will post as soon as I find out anything new.

Chris

Any news on this?

No news yet.  The Dell engineers still have not contacted us.

Go to the BIOS and change this

Drives -> SATA Operation -> RAID Auto detect/ATA

It should work after that =]

The SATA Operation was one of the first things we changed because we were used to that when Vista came out.  We still use XP.  No luck.  Looks like the answer might be a BIOS update, but this is version A01 and there is no update.  Chris has read where this same thing occurs in the 960 and a BIOS update fixed it.

If you use symantec ghost I have found a temporary solution. This can get us through until Dell releases a BIOS update with a PXE fix. 

~ Ghost Console

1. Download PRODOS.EXE from intel's website.

2. From the ghost console create a new network interface card in the network boot package wizard.

3. Use the "Setup" button to point to the NDIS pro1000 driver you extracted from PRODOS.EXE.

4. Allow your Optiplex 780 to boot the factory shipped dell image.

5. Install the ghost console client on the 780. By default the universal packet driver is used on ghost console clients. You will need to change this to the template you just created.

6. In the ghost console go to the properties for the 780 ghost client select the "Client" tab and choose to manually select the network card template you just created. (this forces the client to use the correct driver for ghost tasks)

7. Image the 780 with a ghost clone task.

8. Depending on your image you may need to change the RAID HDD mode in the BIOS for the machine to boot properly.

~ Ghost Boot Disk

You can also create the bootable ghost disk from the network card driver listed above. As long as you use the Intel driver and not the universal driver or the PXE boot option you will be able to boot and image the machine.

Chris

Good Luck trying to get one.  I submitted this as an issue on 11/19.  When I never heard anything after a month, I called them asking what the deal was.  The acted like I was trying to do something totally unsupported and said I would need to get our Sales Rep involved to get Engineering to move on it.  Of course its was 12/21/09 and NO ONE was in office working until after New Years.....

We have the same problem when using Symantec Ghost 8.0.

Odly enough, PXE boot on these machines works flawlessly using WDS (Windows Deployment Services) at least when based on Server 2008 R2.

We have looked at Symantec Ghost Suite 2.5, but as I understand, Symantec still use "3COM Boot Services" for PXE-server.

Raised the issue with DELL, and they say they are working on it.

Soon we will write 2010... 

/Urban

We use Symantec Ghost Suite 2.5, and yes, Symantec still uses "3COM Boot Services" for PXE-server.  PXE Not working for us either and we reported it over a month ago.  (See my earlier post...)   So, If I read your post correctly, it "appears to be a 3Com PXE server/ Optiplex 780" specific issue?

We use PXE boot at our company and it works great with the Dell 760 &  780.

A couple of things that needed to be changed in the Bios first:

Make sure that the Multi Core Support is enable- (should be a  check next to it)

Change the SATA Drive Operation to LEGACY

Hope that helps

Same problem...

We have 50 optiplex 780 with GSS2.5 and 3Com PXE server.

bbsugar481, I have tried your settings and it is not working. In fact, I have tried each SATA Operation mode and it is still not working. Are you using 3Com PXE serveur?

Dom

I need to correct myself.

Sorry for the delay.

I still haven't heard from Dell on a BIOS update yet.

If you create a bootable flash drive from ghost, you want to use the universal packet driver. I use GSS v2.2 so the newer version may differ. I had issues using the Intel driver on the flash drive. However forcing the console to use the intel driver worked when running a console initiated clone task (go figure :P).

Something to consider for large deployments is installing the console boot partition using the universal packet driver. This way you could centrally install a small image. ship the machines to remote sites. Then manage them via the console.

Chris