HP Probook 650 G2 (L8U46AV) freezing after "updating registry"
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I’m a bit baffled by this one so hopefully some of you have had success with this model and can help me out. We have a stack of HP Probook 650 G2 (L8U45AV) that seem to freeze immediately after the “updating registry” step of the Windows setup process just prior to the OOBE starting. The screen goes black and all hard drive activity ceases. I left one on overnight just to be sure and it’s in the same state this morning. This is the only model of computer that I’ve run into any problems with while using our hardware agnostic gold master image. We’re using the auto driver install method from the wiki to push drivers into the image but I don’t think that’s the issue since it’s not getting to the OOBE step that loads drivers. We’re running FOG 1.3 RC8 currently but I doubt it’s a problem there since the image deploys without issues. Our master image is built in VMWare with Windows 7 Enterprise and is completely bare bones (ie it has updates installed, a few registry changes, and the FOG Client installed). If I can’t solve this my last ditch solution is to build a new gold image on one of the units and try to deploy it to the rest of them. I’d rather not have to do that unless absolutely necessary though.
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Are you using the new fog client?
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@Darrin-Enerson said in HP Probook 650 G2 (L8U46AV) freezing after "updating registry":
(ie it has updates installed, a few registry changes, and the FOG Client installed)
Didn’t see that.
You need to follow steps in the wiki to use sysprep with the new fog client. here:
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=FOG_Client#FOG_Client_with_Sysprep -
@Wayne-Workman I’ve followed all of those steps for the master image prior to capturing it. The image works great on all of our other hardware so it’s something specific to the 650 G2 that’s causing it from the looks of it.
I did try to install a clean copy of Windows 7 Enterprise right from the install DVD and it gets hung up needing a driver for the CD/DVD drive of all things. Seems like HP is doing something non-standard with the hardware in these units to cause an issue like that. My guess is that they’re using something other than a standard bus and that’s what causes both issues but it’s just a hunch at this point.
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@Darrin-Enerson Then it has to be driver related, then.
I’d recommend trying to build an image just for that model for now, and see if you can get that to sys-prep and deploy correctly. Once you can do that successfully, just use those drivers you had to use - add them to the other golden image and start working on getting that going.
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@Wayne-Workman That’s the same thought I had. I’m trying to track down what driver is the cause of the installer halt currently. Oddly enough on a unit with the HP image on it both the hard drive and CD/DVD drive hardware IDs show as SCSI devices but no SCSI controller is listed in device manager. My current thinking is they must be running the CD/DVD drive though the USB system since the SATA controller driver doesn’t appear to correct the problem. Once I track it down I’ll post up the solution so that other can find it if they’re in the same boat as me.
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Might be possible that there’s a firmware update for the DVD drive. Could resolve the issue, of course you need to be running some kind of windows to run it…
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Or even a firmware update for the motherboard. An update might make it handle the DVD drive differently.
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@Wayne-Workman @Quazz I checked HP’s site and they don’t have any firmware or BIOS updates for this model beyond what it shipped with currently. Good thought though; wouldn’t be the first time I was shipped something that had buggy firmware right out of the box.
On a whim I tried imaging one of the units and then attempting to install a fresh copy of Windows just to see if it made a difference. Oddly enough this allowed it to go past the missing drivers without a hitch so it must be either picking them up from the hard drive repository or my previous attempt failed to load something critical off of the DVD. Either way the install seems to be proceeding so once that’s finished I’ll build out a new sysprepped image and see if that will deploy to these.
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Well it looks like this is definitely a problem with this model of laptop. The Windows 7 Enterprise installer finished copying and expanding all of it’s files and then as soon as the first reboot happens the computer hangs at the same black screen I receive after imaging it. Looks like I’m destined for the HP support line to kick this up the chain for a fix :(.Edit: I just rebooted without the network cable plugged in and now the installer continued without an issue. More testing needed but maybe an issue with how the FOG boot menu is handing back off to the boot cycle on this model. I’ll update once I’ve done more thorough testing.
Edit 2: The solution for this is that the “Host Bios Exit Type” for this model must be set to “GRUB” or it will hang before the OOBE portion of the Windows install process starts. “SANBOOT” causes this 100% of the time on our units and “EXIT” returns an error. Presumably any of the “GRUB” options would work but I haven’t verified any other than the basic “GRUB” option.
