Slow boot from WinPE 4.0

Putting this in the Win8 forum, as there doesn't seem to be one for Server 2012 deployment.

I am currently automating deployment of a Server 2012 customised image, but am getting very poor performance when booting off WinPE 4.0 on physical servers only.

I have the following comparisions:

1. Boot WinPE 3.0 on an HP DL380 Gen 8 using an ISO made with WAIK and mounted via iLo remote board - takes a couple of minutes max.

2. Boot WinPE 3.0 or 4.0 on a VMware version 8 guest running on vCenter 5.0 using an ISO made with WAIK/WADK and mounted via vmware console - takes a minute.

3. Boot WinPE 4.0 on the same HP DL380 Gen8 using an ISO made with WADK and mounted via iLo remote board - takes 15-20 minutes.

Typically all of the above images only have drivers for NIC and storage controllers for the approriate WinPE version, however I have also tried putting all Server 2012 drivers from the HP Service Pack for Proliant into the WinPE 4.0 image, with no change.

The wpeinit log shows no delays, so it would seem that any delay occurs before that log is started.

Anyone have any further ideas for troubleshooting?


  • Edited by Clockhouse Tuesday, March 26, 2013 3:05 PM Changed title, as server 2012 not relevant
March 26th, 2013 6:04pm

I have not seen any significant timing difference between booting WinPE 3.0 vs 4.0, but I do all my work with PXE.

Are you using 64bit or 32bit WinPE? What is the size of your boot.wim?

Also a consideration of the memory your servers are using. As an example, 1 board can boot WinPE4 x64 with only 1GB RAM, but if I enable RAID on that board, I need at least 2GB to properly boot the image.

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March 26th, 2013 11:59pm

Since I've posted in this topic, I've encountered some hardware where WinPE 4 doesn't boot at all or boots to BSOD. The "workaround" so far has been to use WinPE 5.0 boot images made from the Windows 8.1 ADK. We do have cases open with the hardware manufacturers of these products, however they seem to resist fixing it and just say use WinPE 5.0. :\

  • Edited by Tripredacus Thursday, January 16, 2014 4:34 PM
January 16th, 2014 7:31pm

Thanks for your feedback. We're looking to deploy Server 2012 R2 ASAP, so updating our tools server with the Windows 8.1 ADK is already on my task list. Sounds like I need to bump up the priority.

I've just updated the firmware on my test server to 1.32 at HP's request, however this has not resolved the issue.

  • Edited by Clockhouse Monday, January 20, 2014 10:53 AM
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January 20th, 2014 1:51pm

I have now downloaded the 8.1 ADK and created a new WinPE 5.0 image, with the same result.

In parallel, HP have confirmed to me that when they test my original ISO image that it boots in <3min as expected. They even showed me in a virtual meeting room.

At this stage I'm quite stumped as to where to look next, having also done some basic checks on the network side of things.

January 29th, 2014 6:30pm

I'm getting the same problem will do some testing on Monday when I get to work will let you know what I find out
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February 2nd, 2014 5:02am

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