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Nvidia as an Application and MDT 2012

Answered Nvidia as an Application and MDT 2012

  • Tuesday, October 02, 2012 11:48 PM
     
     
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    I'm trying to deploy Windows 7 with an Nvidia driver. I created an initial deployment last year without issues. However, i seemed to have developed this problem when I went to create a new base image with the latest windows updates. If I use the old task sequence and old image, it installs fine.

    If I have the Nvidia driver install as one of the first applications, it conflicts with Windows trying to download and install its own driver from Windows Update. For certain reasons, I cannot use the driver provided by Windows Update and must use 280.26.

    The weird thing is this happens intermittently, but most times it fails with an unexpected code that i've tried googling and nothing comes up. I'm guessing this has to do with whether Nvidia can get the driver install done first.

    Is there a way to prevent Windows from updating itself after deployment? Seems to cause issues.

    I am using the following switches on setup.exe (already extracted from the installer): setup.exe /n /passive /nofinish

    The Update steps in the task sequence are already disabled.

    Thanks!



    • Edited by ez12a Tuesday, October 02, 2012 11:51 PM
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  • Wednesday, October 03, 2012 2:37 PM
     
     
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    You're using the proper switches for the installer, so I wouldn't see why this doesn't work for you. I've used this same process for my Windows 7 images in order to install the display drivers.

    Windows won't update itself if you do not enable the windows update steps within the task sequence, at least I've never experienced this. If this isn't already what you're doing, maybe try the following:

    Install display driver, add a task sequence step to reboot the computer and then let it check for windows updates?

    Kind regards,

    Stephan Schwarz

    If one of these posts answered your question or issue, please click on "Mark as answer".

    My Blog | Twitter: @Schwarz_Stephan | MCTS, MCITP, MCSA, MCC-2011.
    How to configure Windows RE/OEM Recovery Partition with MDT

     
  • Wednesday, October 03, 2012 3:20 PM
     
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    Thank you for the response.

    I think it's not actually explicitly running windows update, but looking at windows update for device drivers. It seems this is not related to the windows update steps.

    This happens almost immediately when windows boots for the first time. I can see the Nvidia driver stating "new hardware wizard is open" and doesnt install for a few minutes (this is if I have it as the first application that installs). If it does fail, the rest of the applications quit with the 1618 error which is another installation is in progress.

    I might have figured it out though, I had a kill explorer.exe step which kills the interface so someone can't access the system while it's deploying at an office. I'll keep testing and let you all know.

    The failure code when the nvidia driver did fail was something like -57xxxxx (absurdly long, doesnt reveal anything on google).


    edit: For now, it seems that the explorer.exe needs to be running for nvidia to complete successfully. After testing a re-deployment (with the winPE recovery under "repair your computer") and a disk that has been cleaned by diskpart, I have not had any problems since removing the explorer.exe kill.

    • Marked As Answer by ez12a Wednesday, October 03, 2012 4:32 PM
    • Edited by ez12a Wednesday, October 03, 2012 4:33 PM
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  • Wednesday, October 03, 2012 6:51 PM
     
     
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    Have you checked if the Nvidia is causing dirty environment?
     
  • Wednesday, October 03, 2012 9:40 PM
     
     
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    I have not checked, because the task sequence does finish with a summary but with errors. I dont get the dirty environment prompt like I have seen before (for unrelated issues). 

    My guess is that the Add new hardware wizard requires some kind of response or return code from explorer.exe (with you interacting with it). Without the return from explorer.exe to Add New Hardware Wizard, the Nvidia installer fails. This was ultimately caused by the task kill for explorer I had in the past (which also worked in the past)

    I discovered this by accident when I manually launched explorer.exe through task manager while LTI was running. It then proceeded to install properly and has been doing so on subsequent deployments. Windows still does look for updates and drivers (i think this is only resolved by editing the default local GPO) but fails to install it's own driver when it sees my deployed driver. 

    I'll definitely update if I encounter this problem again. I've been troubleshooting this for the past week. 

    • Edited by ez12a Wednesday, October 03, 2012 9:46 PM
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  • Wednesday, October 03, 2012 10:07 PM
     
     
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    While I can't confirm your issue since I don't have spare hardware laying around with a NVidia chipset, it does make sense. I've already seen a couple of various issues when people are deploying Windows while hiding the UI.

    I'm assuming you're using HideShell=Yes?

    With the /n /passive and /nofinish switches you are still shown an "interactive" window. Can you see what the result would be while hiding the shell and install the NVidia driver using the /n /s /nofinish switches? In this case it will not show anything but install the driver completely silent.

    Kind regards,

    Stephan Schwarz

    If one of these posts answered your question or issue, please click on "Mark as answer".

    My Blog | Twitter: @Schwarz_Stephan | MCTS, MCITP, MCSA, MCC-2011.
    How to configure Windows RE/OEM Recovery Partition with MDT

     
  • Wednesday, October 03, 2012 10:22 PM
     
     
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    You could lock the computer instead of killing explorer.exe

    I use this command:
    rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation

    If you have monitoring enabled you can see in the DeploymentWorkbench when a computer has finished.

     
  • Thursday, October 04, 2012 3:31 PM
     
     
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    Stephan,

    Ah I did not know there was a .ini setting for hideshell. I had a task sequence step to send a command line to kill explorer.exe, but if you say that the hideshell essentially does the same thing and still fails, then I suspect explorer.exe plays a large role in how things are installed. 

    I'll go ahead and try the HideShell switch and see if there's any change. With my task sequence step, i see that after the driver waits, it does show a progress bar installing the driver and nvidia control panel and then exits. It still ends up failing. 

    I cant lock the computer either, because I have a disable local admin account step at the end. It'll be stuck logged in and I wont be able to log in to log it out. Also an uninformed user, if deployed at an office, may attempt to use the computer or reboot it since there's no indication it's doing anything. 


    edit: I ran a deployment with HideShell and it caused a problem as well. monitor went dark, and i RDPed into the installation as the Administrator to check on the status. From there I had a dirty environment prompt at the same time another LTI was still running.

    Yes, tested again with a cleaned disk and i get a dirty environment error with HideShell.

    Before I also was running a completely slient installation that never showed a window. It still contained errors and the nvidia driver was never fully installed (nvidia control panel would crash, or state that the driver version was mismatched--conflicting with the old version windows ships with, or a nvidia related file would error out on boot which is what first drew me to the issue)



    • Edited by ez12a Thursday, October 04, 2012 7:37 PM
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