0

I have been picking at this issue for a few weeks now with no resolve or solution found on the webs. When I run a Dell BIOS update with /s and /f during a new Windows 10 21H1 build task sequence, the update runs successfully with the BIOS update log showing error 2 that a reboot is needed to perform the BIOS update upon reboot. So the next step in the task sequence I perform a reboot but the BIOS never does the update, it just boots into Windows. I tried this from command line, PowerShell and as an application with the reboot box checked. All the ways I run this the log says ready to update on reboot but never does. I can get the update to work if I manually perform the reboot by using the mouse before MDT reboots it. This actually performs the update at the reboot as it should! However this of course creates a dirty environment and MDT is grumpy.

This happens on all different Dell builds I try that are only one or two steps newer. We currently use PDQ to run the updates. When I call the install from there, this too works fine. We want to move away from PDQ to a free solution such as just straight from MDT. I found many different ways people have performed this via task sequence and no mention of this hiccup. What I seem to be running into is MDT is removing whatever the BIOS is putting into the boot sequence so it never gets performed. I've tried different credentials, Dell's flash64w.exe and too much to list. Things seem to work until reboot. I'm stumped.

Sample of simple working PowerShell:

# Get model of system to be updated
$Model = (gwmi Win32_ComputerSystem).Model
Write-Host "Model Found: $($Model)"
# Get root folder where BIOS for model is stored
$BIOSRoot = "Z:\Applications\BIOSUpdates\Dell\$Model"
Write-Host "BIOSRoot: $($BIOSRoot)"
# Get path with BIOS executable and list of arguments
$BIOSFile = Get-Childitem -Path "$BIOSRoot" -Include *.exe -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
#Write-Host "BIOSFile: $($BIOSFile)"
$ARGS = @('/s', '/f')
Write-Host "BIOSFile and arguments: $($BIOSFile) $($ARGS)"
#Start BIOS Update with completed path
Start-Process "$BIOSFile" -ArgumentList "$ARGS" -Wait

Is anyone else having this show stopping issue?

karel
  • 5,489
  • 46
  • 45
  • 50
Brett Warr
  • 1

1 Answers1

0

So after much testing, the answer is to run the Start-Process at the end of my code twice. Why? I have no idea. I accidentally had it looping and it worked on the second loop. It just needed to run twice. I thought maybe it just needed more time. I put a sleep at end of the code, but time is not what it wanted. Very bizarre.

Brett Warr
  • 1