Monday, March 16, 2015

Intel Ethernet Connection I218-LM drivers for WinPE

Recently I had issued when creating driver image for Dell E7250 and E7450.
Initial 2 hours took a day to get things sorted out with Intel Ethernet Connection I218-LM  WinPE driver.
The hardware ID's will be; PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15A2&CC_0200

Initially I have downloaded the Dell CAB files and created the driver package. Add the network Drivers to the boot image. However, the deploy task sequence quickly shows the configuration manager page and re-starts. When I run IP config by pressing F8, no IP address was available.

I have tried various drivers using drvload.exe in winpe with no avail. Somehow the drivers from Dell website weren’t working. So eventually I have to download the drivers from Intel website.

So if anyone experiencing issues with Intel® Ethernet Connection I218-LM network adapter, follow below process to resolve it.

1. Download the drivers from Intel download centre using below link;
    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/18713
Choose PROWin32.exe for x32 and PROWinx64.exe for x64 machines.
2. Extract PROEinx64.exe
3. Open the extracted folder and browse to PROWinx64_v2\PROXGB\Winx64
4. Copy NDIS63 folder to a separate location
5. Test the drivers using drvload.exe in winpe.
6. Create a new package using NDIS63 folder then distribute to the DP
7. Add all the drivers to the Boot Image and update the DP's
8. Test your PXE boot and it should work.

11 comments:

  1. I tried this and im still getting the same problem what was the name of the .inf file you loaded? I loaded the .inf file via drvload but still no ipaddress when I did ipconfig

    ReplyDelete
  2. Didn't work for me either.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Saved heaps of troubles with this driver thingy and It worked for me when I tried second time.
    If you not sure which driver to use, check the hardware ID from the device manager then check the .ini file for the listing of the hardware ID. You guys must be doing something wrong.
    Good luck and thanks Venu!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I achieved success by navigating to the PRO1000\Win32\NDIS64 folder and importing this into the boot.wim for my scenario.
    Happy times :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just to reiterate more into my answer - My Operating System deployment environment is Sccm 2012 R2 with ADK (Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit for Windows 8.1). NDIS63 points to a environment that uses Winpe version Windows 8 and NDIS64 refers to a Winpe environment that is based on Windows 8.1. This is why what worked for me as per previous comment differs from Venu as he was using drivers that was based on a different Winpe environment.

      Amazing find still Venu - thanks.

      Delete
  5. Thanks for this article. I did everything according to the process laid out, tested fine with the drvload, but still restarting before task sequence selection. Trying to deploy Win7 64-bit using SCCM 2012 SP1. I wonder what I missed.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Venu, Thanks for this article, Using DRVLOAD with the PRO1000\Win32\NDIS64\e1d6432.inf, I've been successful in obtaining a valid IP, so the driver works in our task sequence boot media which is based on WinPE 6.3.9600,
    The problem is when trying to import the driver into the sccm drivers I receive the error "The selected driver is not applicable to any supported platforms" I've tried many of the other drivers with DRVLOAD but don't get an IP.

    Any thoughts to what I'm missing here? I'm aiming to update our global image so that we can deploy the Dell E7x50 with the I218LM Nic

    Many thanks.... NF

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Found my solution, Microsoft has a hotfix for Server 2008 R2, see article, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2837108.

      This issue occurs because the driver was signed by using the SHA-2 hash algorithm. Therefore, the driver cannot be validated on a WDS platform on which a version of Windows earlier than Windows Server 2012 is installed.

      Cheers.... NF

      Delete
  7. thank you!! this helped me so much

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for taking the time to post this and the replies too - it has been a great help.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This article helped me figure it out!!! YEAY! My issue was similar with Lat 5450 series. I needed to use http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN294178/EN . for some reason when I did the drvload, the driver listed in this article didn't work. Our SCCM is on 2008 R2 which couldn't load the driver without microsoft patches listed here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3025419 . Thanks again for a wonderful article!!!

    ReplyDelete