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Weird RIS Problem


embj

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Hey, all...I'm having this weird problem with RIS. It was finally getting time for me to do a reformat of my computer. I decided...hey, why not try RIS? I've got the capability, so why not learn something new? Well, that's when the problem started. I've got RIS setup just fine, the image of XP x64 on the RIS server, and the ethernet/RAID drivers integrated by doing the $oem$ thing.

I've gotten my computer to recognize the DHCP and RIS server just fine. It prompts me to boot up with the network service, I type in my user name/pass, and it asks me if I want to install the 64-bit version of Windows. I select that, it tells me what the GUID is, the server it's connected to, and the computer name. I press enter to continue, and immediately, I get this weird screen with a bunch of colorful/random characters like little stick men, happy faces, square root signs, music notes, hearts, etc. I have no clue what it is. I've uploaded a video over it here: http://dl027.filefactory.com/dl/f/252724/b...23f4ab4bad2af6/ ...anybody have any ideas as to why it does this?

Thanks.

-Edit: In case this makes any difference...it's a dual core Opteron 165, an Epox nForce3-based mobo, and I'm using the integrated NIC over a gigabit connection to the server.

Edited by embj
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That sounds about right about the time you'd be sent over to Windows' text-mode setup. Is this a riprep image, or a flat image of XP x64?

Also, if you have a flat of 32bit XP Pro, does it do the same thing on this hardware?

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Hmm...well, the hardware has been working without any problems since I built it back in February. However, before trying RIS, I upgraded my mobo to the latest BIOS image. Here are the full specs of it:

Dual Core AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.08 GHz, EPoX 9NDA3J nForce3 Ultra Motherboard, 4x 512MB Kingston HyperX PC4000, Maxtor & Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM PATA in RAID 0, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB Graphics, Auzentech HDA Digital X-Mystique Dolby Digital Live 5.1 Sound, Enermax Noisetaker 470W PSU

I'm booting it from a secondary domain controller that runs Server 2003 Standard with SP1. As I said earlier, I'm new to RIS. So, I really don't know what you mean by a riprep image or a flat image. To make the image of it, I put the XP x64 CD in the drive and ran the RIS Setup Wizard in Administrative Tools.

I just ripped an XP SP2 CD using the RIS Setup Wizard, and I went through setup. It still did the same thing as it did with x64.

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I've seen this happen once when I applied an incorrect hotfix to my RIS image. This hotfix replaced the Ntldr file in the \\<server>\REMINST\Setup\<language>\Images\<image>\<architecture>\templates folder. After restoring the original Ntldr it was working again.

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Well, I have not modified the images at all. The first x64 image...the only thing I did was modify the ristndrd.sif to set it to look for the drivers according to Microsoft's instructions.

However, the second image of XP Pro SP2 was just a straight rip from the CD.

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stupid idea but hey,

where RIS stores all the images, make sure the folders are named with NO spaces. I had wierd stuff happen to me when i had the image folders name with spaces in them. doubt it will help but hey just in case :)

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Ah...well, I thought that might work. I didn't have a space, but an underscore (XP_x64 or XP_SP2). Taking out the underscore didn't seem to help either.

However, I just got a new Inspiron with a Core 2 Duo in today for my boss. I hooked it up at home, and it booted right up into the text portion of the XP x64 setup where my desktop didn't. So, it must be with that computer. It's very weird...so, I might try changing out the graphics card when I get home.

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I do also think that the network card is another place to look - RIS is indeed very dependant on NIC drivers (obviously), and any idiosyncracies or bugs in a NIC driver can cause ALL SORTS of odd problems in RIS setups, that appear to have nothing to do with the NIC (like being unable to find a hard disk, or giving random BSODs during setup, etc).

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