Unable to PXE boot Dell Latitude 3520 laptop a 2nd time

Question

We are running the latest config mgr version 2203.
The image task sequence is deployed to "All Workstations" and "All Unknown Computers"

We have a new Dell Latitude 3520 laptops that when we PXE boot them they work fine and pull down the image. We had a few fail and we can't get them to PXE boot again even after deleting all the unknown devices from SCCM.
We did a test and did a PXE boot on one, let it do the network service boot and then restarted it before it started to pull the image down and it will not PXE boot now.

You press F12, it fails before going any further, normally I will get to see the IP address of my distribution point after pressing F12, nothing shows. It's like it does not even contact the distribution point.

However when we look at the SMSPXE.log we see that it is failing and getting "No boot action. Rejected."
I took note of the MAC and I am unable to find a record of it in SCCM.

Any ideas on what I can do to allow this laptop to PXE boot? I didn't think there was much else to do aside from deleting it the unknown clients from configmgr.

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for posting in Microsoft MEM Q&A forum.

1,Per my experience, we could try to clear PXE flag to have a try. Refer to:
CM: Delving into the "Last PXE Advertisement" flag
client records and multiple PXE boots
Note: The non-Microsoft links are just for your reference.

2,==>However when we look at the SMSPXE.log we see that it is failing and getting "No boot action. Rejected."
In the smspxe.log, is the machine recongnized as an known client and no optional advertisement for it? When the WDS server receives the PXE request, it (the WDS server not the client itself) interacts the client's MAC address and SMSBIOS with the MP to see if the client is in the ConfigMgr Database. So that the WDS server decides if there is a suitable deployment and optional advertisement for the unknown\known client. For example in my environment:

Hope it helps. Thanks for your time.

Best regards,
Simon

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Answer 2

I've uploaded a couple screenshots. So this computer PXE booted fine right out of the box, we got to the point where we enter our PXE boot password and we restarted it to try to PXE boot it again and it fails. Below is what shows up in SMSPXE.log. It shows that it is an unknown machine and no advertisements are found. It was an unknown machine when it PXE booted the first time and found an advertisement, what changed? The 2nd screenshot is our task sequence that is deployed to All Unknown computers and All Workstations so it should definitely be finding the advertisement.
I read your two links, but they don't sound like a solution for my problem I am having.

Another thing, I dunno where it is getting that B4:45:06:44:56:C0 MAC address. I cannot match that to anything on the machine I am PXE booting and it is the only machine that is PXE booting.