We use Windows Deployment Services on Server 2008 R2 to deploy images to all of our computers. To simplify the process, I put driver packages for display & network in WDS so our techs don't have to install them manually. This worked like a charm up until mid-morning today, when all new images, upon first starting up, while "Starting Services" would launch into "Windows Could Not finish configuring the system. to attempt to resume configuration restart computer". I restarted numerous times, and every time the exact same thing would happen. We'd been able to use this exact same image on the exact same model of computers with no problem. Nothing had changed when we started receiving this error.
After a frantic morning of trying different things, I finally found out that disabling the drivers in WDS would allow it to work exactly as intended, without the error message. My question is, how can I keep the drivers enabled and still have it work. Does anybody have any clue as to what might have caused it to stop working suddenly? There were no errors or signs of trouble up until that error message.
Best Answer
Chances are that, while the machines might be the same model number, there is a slight hardware change under the hood. Perhaps a different revision of video card, NIC, whatever.
I'd check on the vendor's website for updated versions of the drivers and replace the existing ones with the new drivers. If that doesn't work, load them back one at a time until you've isolated the culprit and open a ticket with the vendor.