Hi all,

This issue is already resolved, so I thought I'd just write about my experience in case it helps someone else.

We recently upgraded from Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 CU3 to Configuration Manager 2012 R2 CU1 and immediately began having problems with OS deployment. Most of the problems were easy to fix (like needing to update our MDT boot images and change our task sequences so that they use the R2 client instead of the SP1 client), but one issue was very difficult to identify and resolve.

We have a lot of Lenovo W540 and Dell Precision M4700 laptops. We are using the latest official driver packs from Lenovo and Dell for these models, and everything worked fine while we were on SP1 CU3. After upgrading to R2, these two models started failing OS deployment. The symptoms varied, but typically included a corrupt Segoe UI font:

We would also see these errors while setting up the Configuration Manager client during the task sequence:

"This application requires one of the following versions of the .NET Framework: v4.0.30319 Do you want to install this .NET Framework version now?"

 

So since this was only occuring on two specific models, I assumed it was driver related (even though the exact same drivers had worked in SP1). I initially disabled the steps that install drivers for the W540 and M4700 and just added a step to install their network drivers. Without the machine-specific drivers loaded, OSD worked, but I had to manually load drivers after it finished, which was not ideal. I concluded there must be some sort of conflict with something new in the R2 CU1 client and one of the drivers, but narrowing down which driver was causing the problem was too time consuming, so I gave up on it.

I tried using a base OS image that was not built using Configuration Manager, so it wouldn't have any version of the CM client in it. This worked fine, even with all the drivers enabled. I also tried using one of my old base OS images that had the SP1 CU3 client in it, and this also worked. So that made me suspect the 2012 R2 CU1 client was to blame for sure.

I finally tried re-building my base OS images using the 2012 R2 client, but without CU1 (I just removed the PATCH= argument from the "Setup Windows and ConfigMgr" step and re-ran the build and capture task sequence). This worked fine, and is the solution I'm settling on. I can still include the PATCH= argument when I deploy this newly-captured base image.

I don't know the full root cause, but it appears to be some sort of conflict with the device drivers used by these two specific models and something included in CU1. I suspect one of the drivers tries to upgrade .NET framework while a reboot is in progress, or something like that, but that's as far as I got.

I hope this helps someone else, or if you have any ideas on what's broken, I'd love to hear about it.

--Russel Riley

Have you opened a case with Microsoft CSS?

Hi Jason,

I have not opened a case, but I'm considering it. My main reason at this point for not opening a case is that as CSS representatives have told me frequently, they don't do root cause analysis. Now that I have a work around, I don't think they'll offer any support. (Based on my experience with the last 3 cases I've opened).

--Russel

My main point is that they can't and won't fix an issue if they don't know about and CSS cases are the primary (some would say only) vector for them to learn about issues.

I've opened a case. I'll update this thread when I have additional information to add.

--Russel

Hi Jason,

Thanks for encouraging me to open a case. My case is now closed and resolved. Our Build and Capture base image task sequence included the .NET 4.5 framework. At Microsoft's suggestion, I removed this and re-built the base OS images with the CU1 patch still included. Everything seems to be working fine now.

So in all, we found any of the following items contributed to the issue:

1. CU1 patch in base image
2. Loading drivers for specific hardware models (although we've now seen the issue on a Lenovo ThinkPad T540 and Dell Precision T7500 too, so not as specific as initially though)
3. .NET Framework 4.5 in base OS image (along with the Windows Updates that get applied to .NET - it could have been one of those too)
4. Some degree of randomness (since some machines fail with the corrupt font and others with a .NET framework error).

Hope that helps someone else in the future.

Best regards,

--Russel Riley

• Marked as answer by Russel Riley 15 hours 40 minutes ago

Hi Jason,

Thanks for encouraging me to open a case. My case is now closed and resolved. Our Build and Capture base image task sequence included the .NET 4.5 framework. At Microsoft's suggestion, I removed this and re-built the base OS images with the CU1 patch still included. Everything seems to be working fine now.

So in all, we found any of the following items contributed to the issue:

1. CU1 patch in base image
2. Loading drivers for specific hardware models (although we've now seen the issue on a Lenovo ThinkPad T540 and Dell Precision T7500 too, so not as specific as initially though)
3. .NET Framework 4.5 in base OS image (along with the Windows Updates that get applied to .NET - it could have been one of those too)
4. Some degree of randomness (since some machines fail with the corrupt font and others with a .NET framework error).

Hope that helps someone else in the future.

Best regards,

--Russel Riley

• Marked as answer by Russel Riley Tuesday, July 22, 2014 7:44 PM