Solved: Specific Windows 10 1703 Computers not showing in SCCM

I visited a client last Friday, to troubleshoot a case were after a batch of HP laptops got OS Refreshed to Windows 10  some of them are NOT getting anything pushed down in Software Center.

Problem:

Actual report received:

Windows Updates and Software does not appear in Software Center.

Reported that they have re-image these machine on correct network.

Done clear cache, m.u.a.s.s, restart, even sync policy multiple times.
Machine cert are visible.

I have checked these hostnames still have not appear in SCCM.
Not sure how to help them further.

Affected Machines Count: 5

Solution:

I decided to leave the 5 machines powered on over the weekend by simply changing the Power Options > “Turn off hard disk after” and “Sleep > Hibernate after” to 3 days and allow them more time to report in SCCM.

When I returned the following Monday, all machines have been updated and all required applications were installed and the .

Windows 10 clients with Software Center populated with advertised apps. 

Case Background 

Infra overview:

Here’s summarized of the infra we’re working on, each site (we have a lot of sites) has a Distribution Point installed which is also a PXE server for OSD, the roll-out started early this year and is expected to deliver an approximately 150,000 Windows 10 machines. This is a mix of new machines and a few old machines undergoing OS Refresh.

Back to the case:

These are the things performed:

• Log reading: ClientLocation.log and LocationServices.log both are resolving the Management Points.

• Confirmed that machines are all in Active Directory
• Confirmed that the host names of the machines can be resolved through nslookup
• Uninstalling / re-installing the SCCM Client (ccmsetup.exe) and run also running CCMRepair to one Windows 10 machine and the end result it that  I am getting the complete Tabs in the Configuration Manager Properties, Actions tab is completely populated and even seeing that the Software Center gets updated. However these 5 client machines just won’t get any updates or software pushed not appear in the SCCM Console.

• Checked in SCCM for possible duplication of the following:

  • Duplicate MAC address

  • Duplicate BIOS GUID

  • Duplicate “SMS Unique ID”

I managed to find one machine using  SMS Unique ID

and tried to directly add it to SCCM

perform Sync Policy & M.U.A.S.S. 

Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle
User Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle
Application Deployment Evaluation Cycle
Software Updates Scan Cycle
Software Updates Deployment Evaluation Cycle

but still that machine didn’t get the updates/applications or appeared in SCCM.

• Decided to Be Patient:

I learned from the onsite team that they already left these machines turned on overnight however when I checked that Power Settings the “Turn off hard disk after” and “Sleep > Hibernate after” is set yo 180 minutes, so I decided to change the settings where I can leave the machines turned on for 3 days. I run M.U.A.S.S again before I left. When I came back, updates and application were installed. I examined the logs and I can see that Updates started to push after almost 12 hrs after I left.

And that applications were installed after.

Although the “Be patient” method resolved the issue, the root cause is yet to be found, these 5 computers can see SCCM and SCCM can’t see them.

Other possible solution:

• Update BIOS,  I consulted one of my friend doing OSD and told me that usually updating BIOS to old machine resolves most of SCCM issue.
• Another friend pointed to a possible slowness in the performance for an Always On AG