Surface laptops won't boot to MDT server.

Question

We use MDT to deploy our computers. We have imaged hundreds of Surface laptops as well as a number of Dells, Lenovos, etc. Suddenly Surfaces won't boot to the USB WinPE stick created from LiteTouchPE_x64.iso. We write this ISO to a USB stick using Rufus. Neither of our USB boot sticks have changed, they just stopped working. We've recreated the WinPE USB boot devices a number of times trying to fix this. We've tried turning off Safe Boot. The Surfaces will boot from USB sticks created with the Media Creation Tool, but we need the computers to boot to MDT and connect to our server. Dells boot using these USB sticks without a problem.

We are running MS Deployment Toolkit 6.3.8456.100, Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit and the Preinstall Environment add-on version 10.1.26100.2425.

Any feedback, other than "Don't use MDT", is appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi,

Hope everything is going well.

1,Could you kindly share the error screen to narrow down the issue? If possible, we can check the smsts.log and bdd.log to see if there is any further information.

2,We can also try to add the latest NIC and storage drivers to your boot images, update deployment share and then recreate the USB stick.

3,Also make sure there is no firewall or anti-virus software to block the communication between the clients and MDT server.

Thanks for your time. Have a nice day!

Best regards,

Simon

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Answer 2

Allow me to add some clarification: the problem is not getting the client to communicate with the MDT server. I never get to that point because the client won't boot into WinPE. When attempting to boot to the USB all I get is the spinning white circle on a black screen. (BTW, the deployment share has been updated and has the needed drivers)

Some added details: on some Surface laptops, in this case a Laptop 5, if I turn on Secure Boot it will boot correctly and connect to the MDT server. On others changing the Secure Boot settings have no effect.

Answer 3

Hi,

Please try updating Rufus to the latest version.

Consider using other tools like Ventoy to create bootable USB sticks for booting into WinPE. This might help resolve the issue you're facing with the Surface devices.

Ventoy lets you copy ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD (x)/EFI files to a USB drive and boot them directly without formatting.