ifM63x64.sys file missing or corrupt - SCCM OSD (X1 Carbon)

Building a new Lenovo X1 Carbon with the new integrated LAN adapter (no more guessing which USB port to use!) via SCCM 2007 and I came across this little blinder.

After the first reboot to OS I was presented with this error screen:

I spotted that is was driver in my driver pack (taken from Lenovo's SCCM pack) for the  Intel Ethernet FCoE Virtual Storport Miniport Driver.

I located the driver in my driver pack and removed it - left he check box UNTICKED to update the distribution point and then manually when and updated it after myself. 

Once I was happy that the source had incremented by one version I kicked off the build again.

Sure enough it sailed through and we are all happy....

 

Operating System Deployment with USB Dongles (Lenovo in my case)

With the advances in technology we have seen in recent years, devices have become smaller, thinner and lighter than ever before.

With this we are finding that some devices are loosing functionality - ie. Some devices are having ports omitted to retain their slender profile.

The Lenovo X1 Carbon adopted this approach and required a USB dongle which I posted about the pitfalls of PXE boot here: Lenovo X1 PXE Issues

I've seen an increase in the issues these dongles are causing us deployment techs, one of those being that each of these dongles have their own MAC address.  In true tech style when we see this new wizardry the first thing we say is "MINE"... Well actually the first thing we normally say is "Ooh Shiney" but then there's a Smeagle like "My Precious" when we claim the Shiney as our own.

I did this.  I had my very own dongle.  It worked great.  ONCE!  Every subsequent build failed.  I did a bit of research and found that it had it's own MAC that was registering in SCCM so I had to surrender my Shiney and give it on to the user.

I now use the supplied dongles for each build as it isn't worth the trouble but I have it on good authority that with the latest gen of Lenovo kit they are shipping certain models with on-board NICs (therefore unique MACs) and the dongle is purely a port extender utilising USB to present an Ethernet port.

If you have fallen prey to this (and insist on using one dongle to rule them all) you need to read my earlier post to search SCCM for machines by their MAC address.

Have fun...

DocN

X1 Carbon Incorrect Hash Errors during OSD

I was fighting with this one for a couple of days.  Lenovo X1 Carbon - deploying Windows 7 x64.  All drivers were fine and dandy but I was getting randon "Incorrect hash value" errors when the OSD was failing.

This was determined by looking in the SMSTS.log once the OSD had failed.

It transpires that if the USB to Ethernet adapter was plugged in to the right hand USB socket it was dropping loads of packets.  Plugging it into the left hand side worked a treat.

As simple a solution as it sounds this may be far too obvious for some tecchy to even try.  I managed to replicate this on 3 different units so it wasn't just faulty parts.

Felt like a complete numpty once I discovered the fix!

Lenovo X1 Carbon PXE Boot Issues

I  was recently given the nice new shiny Lenovo X1 Carbon to play with and deploy our corporate Windows 7 image to it.  To maintain its slim physique it hasn't got a built in Ethernet adaptor and is supplied with a Lenovo USB 2.0 to Ethernet Adapter.  Obviously we now had to track down the driver to inject to our Boot Image.

Initially we used the Lenovo USB 2.0 Ethernet Adapter Driver 5.4.3.0 which PXE booted but then seemed to fail and hang once WinPE loaded up.

I then downloaded the Lenovo X1 Carbon SCCM Driver Pack which came with v5.12.4.0 which also seemed to give me problems.

Eventually I found that it was the manufacturers Vista driver that worked for me.

From the AXIS website you can download the AXIS AX88772B Vista Driver which worked a treat.  With the SSD this was a dream to image and was quite quick in comparison to others.

Hope this helps.

Chris.

Lenovo Driver Installs via OS Deployment

Any tech unfortunate enough to have to visit Lenovo's driver page will agree it isn't the friendliest of places.  Kind of like my home town of Preston at about 2am on a Sunday morning; you only go there if you have to and get the hell out of there as quick as you can - and DON'T make eye contact with anyone!

The naming convention in non existent - unlike their competition such as Dell and HP who have meaningful, descriptive file names for their drivers and respective folders.

If you require a solution to deploy Lenovo drivers throughout your estate then don't despair - there is an answer.

In addition to the handy [yeah, don't do us any favors Lenovo] TVT System Updater tool they provide for individual clients they also developed the "Update Retriever" & "ThinInstaller" as part of their Think Vantage Toolkit (TVT) branded client tool solution.

To configure SCCM to deliver driver updates (it's also capable of MS updates but that's another story) there are a couple of solutions out there but this is the one I settled with:

Assumptions :

• You have a deployment solution in place already with relevant TaskSequence - if not please see the wonderful WindowsNoob tutorials- big shout out to Niall Brady for this site - it's an invaluable resource to any SCCM tech.
• You are proficient with SCCM
• You know the machine type of the Lenovo machine you are using

• Download the above software and install Update Retriever [UR] locally on your machine or the SCCM server.  Set it up and create a folder to act as the repository for the update and driver files and share it out - mines called "Update Retiever".  Tell UR to download to this folder (follow Lenovo's instructions if your struggling but it's straight forward)
• Create a package in SCCM for ThinInstaller (TI) from the files that are extracted from the crappy compressed .exe you end up with and within the package create a program as below:

1. Create a batch file and call it something meaningful like "copyfiles.bat"
2. Within the batch file use the command: xcopy.exe \\SCCMSERVER\DISTRIBUTIONPOINT\PACKAGENAME\*.* c:\lenovo\thininstaller\ /E /D where SCCMSERVER = your servername/IP of server DISTRIBUTIONPOINT = the folder used for your DP packages (i.e. SMSPKGD$) and PACKAGENAME = the name of the package (i.e. LCT000B8).  This will copy the ThinInstaller software locally to the client as it needs to run from a local folder and doesn't extract and "install" as such.
3. Create an "Install Software" task sequence entry under "State Restore" that calls the batch file "copyfiles.bat"

• Create a "Run Command Line" task sequence and call it something like "Run ThinInstaller"
• Use cmd line: cmd.exe /c thininstaller.exe /CM -search A -action INSTALL -repository \\SCCMSERVER\Update_Retriever  -noicon -includerebootpackages 1,2,3,4 -noreboot *don't forget to change this path to suit your config.
• Start in: c:\lenovo\thininstaller -this is where the files were copied to.
• Time-out - 120

This should now enable the client to run ThinInstaller locally and pull over all the relevant drivers for that model.

Lenovo N500 keyboard replacement

This was another laptop that had a faulty keyboard - just a straight forward swapout and it worked fine. Had a helping hand from the Lenovo website and got the service manual in PDF format.