XPS 13 L322 never pxe-boots with a Startech USB21000S2 USB to NIC dongle

I am having the same issue.  Did you get anywhere with this?

Yeah, I figured this one out the hard way. After dealing with Dell's tech support and realizing they had no idea what they were talking about (not always like this, but it was pretty bad this time) - I almost gave up. All of our other laptops work great and I made sure the driver was properly integrated into the boot media. The most confusing part was that it appeared to get an IP address and could even ping the SCCM server without issue.

I decided to start messing with the driver's INF file (which controls the default settings for the driver) and I disabled all of the unnecessary features. After re-importing the modified driver and re-integrating it with the boot media, it worked! Here are the lines from the net7500-x64-n630f.inf I modified (from version 2.0.1.1):

Line 060: HKR,Ndi\Params\FlowControl,default,         ,"0"

Line 098: HKR,Ndi\Params\MediaType,default,           ,5

Line 091: HKR,Ndi\Params\PriorityVLANTag,default,     ,"0"

Line 105: HKR,Ndi\Params\USBBandwidthMode,default,    ,"2"

Line 130: HKR,Ndi\Params\*PMARPOffload,default,      ,0

Line 136: HKR,Ndi\Params\*PMNSOffload,default,       ,0

Line 156: HKR,Ndi\Params\*LsoV1IPv4,default,      ,0

Line 162: HKR,Ndi\Params\*LsoV2IPv4,default,      ,0

Line 168: HKR,Ndi\Params\*LsoV2IPv6,default,      ,0

Line 174: HKR,Ndi\Params\*IPChecksumOffloadIPv4,default,        ,"0"

Line 182: HKR,Ndi\Params\*TCPChecksumOffloadIPv4,default,        ,"0"

Line 190: HKR,Ndi\Params\*TCPChecksumOffloadIPv6,default,        ,"0"

Line 198: HKR,Ndi\Params\*UDPChecksumOffloadIPv4,default,        ,"0"

Line 206: HKR,Ndi\Params\*UDPChecksumOffloadIPv6,default,        ,"0"

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one on the internet who has figured this out so far, so hopefully others will benefit from this!

Hello, Thank you so much for the variable information. I downloaded the latest driver (version 2.2.2.2) from the smsc site and disabled above items in the net7500-x64-n620f.inf. I then imported it to the sccm and added it to the boot image. However, the result is the same. The PXE-boot ends with an error saying "Nothing to boot : No such file or directory (SMSC-PXE/2d03e13b). No more network devices" It appears to me that it obtains an IP address..

Interesting. I believe we may have been experiencing different problems. Is this happening on a single XPS13 or multiple units? Can you confirm that your task sequence is being deployed to the 'All Unknown Computers' group? If it is, make sure that the XPS13 doesn't already exist in your SCCM devices section (delete it if it does). Otherwise, it probably isn't considered 'unknown'.

I just pxe booted an XPS13 (L322X) using the StarTech USB 2.0 Ethernet adapter on a laptop that previously had an SCCM agent (2012 SP1) and I received the exact same error message you did: "Nothing to boot : No such file or directory. No more network devices."

I then deleted the old agent in the devices section (under the Assets and Compliance tab), waited a couple of minutes, and then retried pxe booting - and it worked.

Again, the reason you see the "Nothing to boot : No such file or directory. No more network devices." messages is because SCCM believes the computer is already in a particular device collection that doesn't have any pxe task sequences deployed. When you delete a device from SCCM, it will be detected under the 'All Unknown Computers' collection the next time it tries to pxe boot. As long as your task sequence is deployed to the 'All Unknown Computers' collection, it should work.

Hi, Thank you for the advice. You are absolutely right about unknown systems. The XPS 13 I am trying to pxe-boot does not exist in the sccm and it is unknown and I believe the first thing to check when receiving this kind of error is to look into whether the system is in the sccm database. My task sequence is deployed to all unknown computers collection and all other models work great. Only the XPS 13 fails to pxe-boot. One thing I would like to ask you is about USB 3.0 drivers in the boot image. The XPS 13 L322X comes with 2 USB 3.0 ports and I think I should inject USB 3.0 drivers into the boot image. I created a new boot image by importing WinPE 3.0 A11 driver which was available in en.community.dell.com/.../2065.dell-driver-cab-files-for-enterprise-client-os-deployment.aspx but I do not think it contains USB 3.0 drivers for L322X. It contains Fresco Logic xHCI (USB3.0) Controller but I think this is for the previous model (L321X). Which USB 3.0 drivers does your boot image contain?

Actually, I didn't use USB 3.0 drivers in my boot image. I don't believe drivers are relevant until the boot image has been loaded - which happens after successfully pxe booting. I should mention that I'm using the WinPE 4.0 boot image from the Windows ADK (www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx).

There's only two other scenarios in which your situation makes sense to me.

1) There's a boundary issue. I find this unlikely since your other models pxe boot without issue.

2) There's some setting in your BIOS that is not set correctly. Did you disable secure-boot and enable the legacy boot options?

Do you have multiple XPS13 units to test? I'm curious if an unused out-of-the-box laptop would have the same problem. If it did, you would know for sure that it's nothing to do with how SCCM is identifying the laptop in regards to device collections.

Also, I know this isn't as convenient, but have you considered using the 'create task sequence media' option when you right click on the 'task sequences' item? You can generate a bootable USB that loads your boot image, thus bypassing the need for pxe booting.

Hi, Thank you for the suggestions. I agree with you that the USB 3.0 drivers are not relevant, because my problem is that the boot image is not loaded in the memory. I have created the dynamic boot media as I needed to provide the temporal workaround to bypass the pxe-boot and it has been working great. I have tested pxe boot with two XPS13 units in my site and the result was the same. The secure-boot is disabled and I always enable the legacy boot. The verification will soon start in other sites so I will update as soon as I know the result. I am just wondering this might be a site-specific issue. Anyway, I appreciate your variable suggestions. Thank you so much.