Pre-build steps - Dell GX270

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

Two questions:

1. Dell GX270 client box appears to have "Dell Diagnostics" on a FAT16
PRI-DOS partition - Drive C: !

I'm sure it used to be on a "special" partition on earlier models,
anyway I didn't know how to do my unattend.txt build (it needs a C
drive), so I had to whack the diagnostics.

2. There seems to be NO WAY to identify hardware in a Dell client box?
The diagnostics will only "test" things, not identify them. Makes it
hard if you're trying to do an unattended install with PnP drivers. In
the end I had to install the Dell resource CD to an older box and
"guess" which hardware the new box contained. Surely there must be a
better way? You basically want to know things like

Intel chipset rev
Intel embedded graphics rev (if using on-board graphics)
Analog Devices sound chip (if using on-board sound)
Intel NIC rev

 

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

I had to do the same thing for my build with respect to the GX270. I still
have a "mystery" device listed in Device Manager, but everything seems to be
installed.

If you installed Resource CD on the actual PC, though, it does identify the
hardware to an extent.

I wish Dell would just put uncompressed PnP drivers on its CDs. It would
make things so much easier.

I also made the same choice with regard to the diagnostics partition.

Cheers

Oli

 

[Patrick J. LoPresti]

1. Dell GX270 client box appears to have "Dell Diagnostics" on a
FAT16 PRI-DOS partition - Drive C: !

I'm sure it used to be on a "special" partition on earlier models,
anyway I didn't know how to do my unattend.txt build (it needs a C
drive), so I had to whack the diagnostics.

You are correct that it used to have a different partition type.
Yuck. It might be worth complaining to Dell.

Instead of deleting it, you could probably change its type to make it
"hidden", install Windows, and unhide it again. Although it would
still show up with a drive letter under Windows... Hm, for this
reason alone I am surprised Dell is using a normal partition. Perhaps
some tech just forgot a step while building your machine; have you
tried any others?

2. There seems to be NO WAY to identify hardware in a Dell client
box? The diagnostics will only "test" things, not identify
them. Makes it hard if you're trying to do an unattended install
with PnP drivers. In the end I had to install the Dell resource CD
to an older box and "guess" which hardware the new box
contained. Surely there must be a better way? You basically want to
know things like

Intel chipset rev
Intel embedded graphics rev (if using on-board graphics)
Analog Devices sound chip (if using on-board sound)
Intel NIC rev

Boot any diskless Linux distribution (I use the Red Hat installation
CD in "rescue" mode) and run "lspci".

Or, if you insist on using DOS , Bart's "pciscan" utility does much
the same thing. Get it at <http://www.nu2.nu/utils/#pciscan>.

If you encounter an unrecognized PCI device and/or vendor ID, you
should find the database at <http://pciids.sourceforge.net/> helpful.

- Pat
http://unattended.sourceforge.net/

 

[Dave K.]

Intel has a utility that identifies which chipset is in
use. Try this site: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets
and check out the "How to identify your Intel chipset"
utility.

Also, can't you get the PC configuration from Dell's
support site by entering the service tag ID? That is how
we do it, although not sure what you mean by "client PC".
Each Dell we have, and we have several hundred, has a
Service Tag number that pulls up a configuration. Dell
also has a downloadable utility that does the same thing.

Take a look as this site:
http://support.dell.com/systemdocumentation/index.aspx

Good luck.

Dave K.

 

[Patrick J. LoPresti]

Intel has a utility that identifies which chipset is in
use. Try this site: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets
and check out the "How to identify your Intel chipset"
utility.

This tells you the chipset, but that is not enough to determine all
(or even most) of the drivers you need.

Also, can't you get the PC configuration from Dell's
support site by entering the service tag ID?

This will tell you about some add-on hardware, but this is also
insufficient to determine all of the drivers you need.

The only way to find out exactly what drivers you need is to ask the
hardware itself, which means booting to some OS first.

From Linux, you can use lspci, which is a standard tool. This is what
I usually do.

From DOS, you can use pciscan, which you can download.

From Windows, you can use the "Computer Management" control panel. Go
to Computer Management -> System Tools -> System Information ->
Components. Click on any sub-folder (e.g., "Problem Devices", if you
are trying to find a driver for an Unknown Device). Look in the "PNP
Device ID" column to obtain the Vendor ID, Device ID, and Subsystem
ID. Go to <http://pciids.sourceforge.net/> to find out the
human-readable name of the device which has that ID.

If you have a driver at hand, and you want to know whether it supports
to a particular device (without installing it), just read the driver's
..inf file to see which Vendor/Device/Subsystem IDs it supports.

Of course, Windows ships with many drivers; this stuff is only useful
if Windows lacks built-in support for your hardware. The newer the
hardware (or older the Windows), the more likely you are to need a
third-party driver, which is what these instructions can help you
find.

- Pat
http://unattended.sourceforge.net/

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Oli,

I had to do the same thing for my build with respect to the GX270. I still
have a "mystery" device listed in Device Manager, but everything seems to be
installed.

I was lucky! All device drivers were fine (I did spend 3 hours parsing
INF files by eye though). It's nice having USB2.0 in SP4 - one less to
worry about. You may have different hardware to me, but if you've got
the base spec, you should see a bunch of Intel stuff under "System
Devices", and one under "IDE ATAPI controllers"; you should see Analog
Devices under "Sound Video and Game controllers", then the Intel
Extreme2 graphics (or what ever it's called) for "Display adapters" plus
the Intel NIC (gigabit/Pro1000).

Some of these drivers kindly continue to support earlier devices, so you
can still get away with ONE build for multiple models of machine.

You may be able to look at "Properties" of your "Unknown" device and
work out what it is, based on PCI slot number.

If you installed Resource CD on the actual PC, though, it does identify the
hardware to an extent.

Yes, I know what you mean but this presents a catch 22 situation for the
first one you ever have to build. I guess I could have booted in
Macromedia XP, listened to the stupid musak, filled in all the forms,
installed the Dell CD and then tried to work it out ... but life's too
short. You still then have to check against other models unless you're
going to have separate builds for every type of hardware you have. How
hard would it be for Dell to place a hardware detection utilty on the
CD? They know their own hardware, it's surely a simple job.

I wish Dell would just put uncompressed PnP drivers on its CDs. It would
make things so much easier.

I agree! Their CD is joke.

I also made the same choice with regard to the diagnostics partition.

Right

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Dave,

Intel has a utility that identifies which chipset is in
use. Try this site: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets

Yes, this is VERY nice, but it only works AFTER Windows is installed!
Unless you know of a DOS one? It also won't help with the Analog Devices.

Also, can't you get the PC configuration from Dell's
support site by entering the service tag ID?

Probably, but does it give the correct detail, or does it just say
things like "Intel Extreme2" which isn't much help. I will have a look
at this, Dell's site was very slow the other day and personally I think
this is a tedious way of finding out something that should appear on the
first screen of the diagnostics utility.

 

[Dave K.]

Guess I did not catch that there was no OS loaded. It
might not be of any help, but our Dells also have a
directory, C:\dell\drivers that has chipset and video
information in .txt files as well as drivers. But, that
may not be on your systems if you have no OS. Are you
buying them unconfigured and rolling your own? I'll butt
out. Good luck.

Dave K.