Just revisited this - I set up a brand new ubuntu desktop and installed nothing but Fog on it - I reformatted the problem laptop and did nothing but put 1 txt document on desktop. I also reset the toshiba bios.

To check fog was working, I took a working laptop and did a quick host, an upload, and a deploy all successfully.

I then took the problem laptop, managed to get the PXE to boot to fog menu, did a ‘quick host’ first time, completed an upload (to a new image file) first time also, went to deploy it - and it got stuck at the same place as the video. Just dispays a ‘#’ when it should go to the blue screen.

I’m about to throw it all out the window.

Hi all.

I’m going to be buying some new laptops for our work place and was wondering if there were any special brands or specs to avoid when it comes to ghosting?

90% of my units are currently Toshiba u500s, and apart from 1 unit (which i swear is possessed!) everything seems to be smooth sailing.

If there are any brands or specs to avoid (purely because of FOG reasons) I’d love a heads up now

(I wont be buying ACER / DELL / HP - I’m more likely looking at Toshiba, ASUS, Samsung at this stage)

thanks

for the record, this was never solved/fixed.

I’ve literally no idea wtf is wrong with this unit. After tax time, I’ll just buy some new laptops and use this line as ‘backup’.

ok two things;

first - no. no usb in laptop.
second - on closer inspection two laptops (1xworking and 1xshitty) have different harddrive hardware ids. I don’t know if that makes a difference. I assume not as two working laptops also have different id’s - AND - i swapped harddrives between laptops.

everything else, settings and hardware wise, is the same.

Still scratching my head over this one.

It’s all good jason. Thanks for the reply.

but yeah. what you wrote is completely correct.

Also, I might add that all laptops can upload. Even the ‘bad’ one. It will upload an image just fine. it just can’t deploy anything.

bump

update : Just swapped the harddrive of the trouble laptop with another one, and the good laptop deployed a treat, the trouble one froze at same place.

I’ve just gone through the bios to ensure that both are identical and still can’t figure it out. :S

I hadn’t done that yet jason, but i have to admit that thought had crossed my mind. it just makes no sense to me that it worked when i setup fog in the first place, but suddenly not one day. Could be corrupt hard drive. I’ll investigate and keep this thread updated.

re-updated the bios to 1.90 and still see no harddrive mode options…which is frustrating because on other bios’ i know exactly what you’re asking me to find…I just dont seem to have access on this piece of ***t.

Angry David

Hi jason. Yeah, I tried it all before christmas and kinda got fed up with it so just banished the laptop to a cupboard, but now we need to start using it again (my boss asked ‘‘i thought we had 5 laptops?’’) so I’ve gotta come up with a solution.

The Toshiba Laptops are ‘Satellite U500 PSU9MA-00K013’

Fog was correctly identifying the bios as v1.70 ((It also correctly identified when i was using 1.90)).

To be doubly sure, I just created a new image specifically for this laptop, uploaded it without a problem, but when i try to deploy that image on itself, it hangs in exactly the same way. (???wtf???).

Hi Kevin, The bios the latop is currently using is rubbish and as far as i can see, doesn’t display that information. It’s using the aptio setup utility so if you’re familiar with that, I’m happy to upload pictures or anything that may be useful.

I just loaded the ‘Setup Defaults’, changed boot order back to PXE first and tried - same thing.

Thanks for the help guys. when we nail this, I’ll chuck you all a few paypals for a beer or two