Asus X550J laptop
I've found this problem talked about online, but no
help. System claims to analyze disk at boot, then repair starts, then screen goes blank. BIOS accessible. Unable to boot from CD. Very few options in the BIOS. I don't know where to start. Sometimes I get a disk inaccessible error. Other times not. Mybe the laptop has been dropped? |
Asus X550J laptop
Mayayana wrote:
I've found this problem talked about online, but no help. System claims to analyze disk at boot, then repair starts, then screen goes blank. BIOS accessible. Unable to boot from CD. Very few options in the BIOS. I don't know where to start. Sometimes I get a disk inaccessible error. Other times not. Mybe the laptop has been dropped? https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/X550JK/specifications/ Storage 1TB HDD 5400 You should be able to pull the drive, and work on it in your technician machine. It's likely to be a 2.5" SATA with standard SATA connectors. Check the SMART stats on the hard drive. See if the partitions that should be visible, have files showing. If the owner has valuable data on it, back up first, before charting a course of action. The temptation to run CHKDSK is probably overpowering, but see if you can back it up first. Paul |
Asus X550J laptop
"Paul" wrote
| You should be able to pull the drive, and work on it | in your technician machine. It's likely to be a 2.5" | SATA with standard SATA connectors. | It's been backed up. No problem there. I plugged it in with a USB adaptor to my XP machine and disk manager says it's healthy but it doesn't show up in My Computer. I can't boot a CD in the laptop. I'm guessing this is possibly encrypted and certainly NTFS. What do I need to see the files on that? I have WinXP and Win7-64. Should 7 see it if I just plug it in as a data drive? | Check the SMART stats on the hard drive. | | See if the partitions that should be visible, have | files showing. | |
Asus X550J laptop
Mayayana wrote:
"Paul" wrote | You should be able to pull the drive, and work on it | in your technician machine. It's likely to be a 2.5" | SATA with standard SATA connectors. | It's been backed up. No problem there. I plugged it in with a USB adaptor to my XP machine and disk manager says it's healthy but it doesn't show up in My Computer. I can't boot a CD in the laptop. I'm guessing this is possibly encrypted and certainly NTFS. What do I need to see the files on that? I have WinXP and Win7-64. Should 7 see it if I just plug it in as a data drive? | Check the SMART stats on the hard drive. | | See if the partitions that should be visible, have | files showing. | Best practice, is for the encrypting party to have a "password floppy" or equivalent. You can make a kind of recovery media, that allows decrypting the partition in question. With full disk encryption, the tiny partition containing /boot and the BCD file, is not encrypted. Therefore, enough software must be present in there, to support decryption before hand-off to C: . It's your job, to find the password media the owner was supposed to use, for just such emergencies. Presentation of the password disc, should enable you to convert the disk back to plaintext. Some of these schemes, there can be error multiplication. A single error in storage, can cause a larger chunk of info to be errored, by schemes such as encryption or compression. In the case of BitLocker, there is the Elephant Diffuser in earlier versions. Microsoft made the Win10 version less secure by removing the Elephant Diffuser. As long as the encryption scheme is file based, perhaps the most damage a storage error could do, is severe damage to the file the error is in. If the encryption scheme were to work at the sector level (as if it was a large TAR file), then one error in storage, could be spread all over the place. The manual shows it has Secure Boot. You would think the choices would be "Yes" or "No", but AptIO apparently supports "Custom". The Key Management field populates if you switch it to Custom. The reason I'm looking in this area right now, is for signs the box has a TPM chip. TPM can be used by BitLocker. Or as a root of trust for Secure Boot or something. http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/X550JD/0409.pdf https://www.manualslib.com/manual/80...4.html?page=93 Platform Key (PK) Key Exchange Key database (KEK) Authorized Signature database (DB) Forbidden Signature database (DBX) That doesn't necessarily mention TPM. If you set Secure Boot Control to [Disabled], as seen on page 81 of 0409.pdf, then maybe you can get your OS media to boot. For whatever thing you have in mind. If it's a UEFI BIOS, then perhaps you'd want to try OS media which is Hybrid and supports both Legacy and UEFI. On your Win7 disc, you might want to try an SP1 flavor of disk, as it might stand a better chance of working. I don't know the status of Windows 7 when it comes to booting on stuff like this. I sure hope the owner read the "best practice" for whatever crypto is in usage. It could be BitLocker. It could be TrueCrypt for all I know. I don't really know what to look for, when it becomes apparent crypto is involved. Would the method print on the screen "I am BitLocker, and no you may not come in" ? Or would it fail silently ? You may have Win7 media, because you bought a retail disc with license key. In which case there is a Microsoft web page to download media (i.e. a more recent Win7 disc with SP1 on it). If you got the Win7 non-SP1 media at a fire sale, with no key, then you can use the Heidoc URL generator software, to make Microsoft cough up a download for you. The reason it has "steep requirements", is it uses Internet Explorer to carry out a transaction with TechBench, which coughs up a download URL, without the presentation of your license key. You use the "Copy to Clipboard" button in the panel, them flip over to any browser (Firefox) and paste in the download URL. The download URL is valid for 24 hours, so don't attempt a DVD download over dialup, as it might stretch past 24 hours. Any sort of broadband internet, should be able to complete the download in less than 24 hours. https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techno...-download-tool You only need to download something, if you can't get your existing media to work. With Secure Boot turned off. Paul |
Asus X550J laptop
"Paul" wrote
| Best practice, is for the encrypting party to have | a "password floppy" or equivalent. You can make a | kind of recovery media, that allows decrypting the | partition in question. | I don't have any reason to think it's encrypted. But up until now I've managed to preety much avoid NTFS and newer boot systems. If I hook up a FAT32 disk to any computer I can read it. This disk is not showing up. So I'm wondering what system/software I might use just to check for valid partitions and test the drive. It has to be on a system, since the DVD drive boot is not working. What would the tech people who retrieved personal files used? | The manual shows it has Secure Boot. You would think the | choices would be "Yes" or "No", but AptIO apparently | supports "Custom". I didn't notice such a field. I guess I need to get up to date on these newer complications. | If you set Secure Boot Control to [Disabled], as seen on page 81 | of 0409.pdf, then maybe you can get your OS media to boot. For | whatever thing you have in mind. If it's a UEFI BIOS, then | perhaps you'd want to try OS media which is Hybrid and supports | both Legacy and UEFI. On your Win7 disc, you might want to try an | SP1 flavor of disk, as it might stand a better chance of working. | I don't know the status of Windows 7 when it comes to booting | on stuff like this. | I have a Win7 disk. But I'm not clear how that might be useful. Boot it in the DVD drive and then...? I *don't* have a Win8 disk and so far the owner hasn't found an activation key, so I'm not sure I could reinstall that way, even if I get the DVD boot working. (I thought the "genuine license" sticker was always on these things, but this laptop doesn't have it.) What about the phenomenon of gettting bumped? The boot typically goes through checking for disk errors, fixing errors, etc. but then either goes blank or goes to BIOS. At that point the hard disk has, at least sometimes, disappeared from the BIOS. Is it possible that's actually a boot or software issue and not a faulty SATA connection? |
Asus X550J laptop
"Paul" wrote
..... Secure boot seems to be at least part of the problem. With that turned off I'm getting either a login to reset or error c000021a. Ophcrack can't find a password needed for the reset. But it's progress. Thanks. I never would have thought of secure boot acting like the hard disk is loose! |
Asus X550J laptop
Mayayana wrote:
"Paul" wrote | Best practice, is for the encrypting party to have | a "password floppy" or equivalent. You can make a | kind of recovery media, that allows decrypting the | partition in question. | I don't have any reason to think it's encrypted. But up until now I've managed to preety much avoid NTFS and newer boot systems. If I hook up a FAT32 disk to any computer I can read it. This disk is not showing up. So I'm wondering what system/software I might use just to check for valid partitions and test the drive. It has to be on a system, since the DVD drive boot is not working. What would the tech people who retrieved personal files used? | The manual shows it has Secure Boot. You would think the | choices would be "Yes" or "No", but AptIO apparently | supports "Custom". I didn't notice such a field. I guess I need to get up to date on these newer complications. | If you set Secure Boot Control to [Disabled], as seen on page 81 | of 0409.pdf, then maybe you can get your OS media to boot. For | whatever thing you have in mind. If it's a UEFI BIOS, then | perhaps you'd want to try OS media which is Hybrid and supports | both Legacy and UEFI. On your Win7 disc, you might want to try an | SP1 flavor of disk, as it might stand a better chance of working. | I don't know the status of Windows 7 when it comes to booting | on stuff like this. | I have a Win7 disk. But I'm not clear how that might be useful. Boot it in the DVD drive and then...? I *don't* have a Win8 disk and so far the owner hasn't found an activation key, so I'm not sure I could reinstall that way, even if I get the DVD boot working. (I thought the "genuine license" sticker was always on these things, but this laptop doesn't have it.) What about the phenomenon of gettting bumped? The boot typically goes through checking for disk errors, fixing errors, etc. but then either goes blank or goes to BIOS. At that point the hard disk has, at least sometimes, disappeared from the BIOS. Is it possible that's actually a boot or software issue and not a faulty SATA connection? About the only reason for booting the faulty computer with an installer DVD, would be to get to Command Prompt so you can run CHKDSK. At the moment, there's no reason to be running offline DISM or offline SFC scannow. You can also use BCDEDIT, and do repairs to the BCD table if it is damaged. So far, none of your symptoms suggest booting to a Command Prompt is going to help. It almost sounds like it's hitting a bad spot, and going crazy (or freezing). You can pull the drive and put it in your technician machine - the machine with the clean power and working interfaces. Then you can test there, to see if the symptoms are machine-related. A disk drive can go "insane" if the power requirements are not met. On a 3.5" drive, if the 12V rail hits 11V, the drive will spin down and spin up again. A bit of droop is enough to cause the processor to stop responding on the disk controller card. If the drive attempts to update the Service Area (=SA or Track -1), and is unable to write, then it might try a few "seek to zero" style head resets (clicking/ticking sound), then give up and stop responding. ******* On a Windows 8 laptop, the key is stored in the BIOS. Each BIOS chip has a unique key (which is unlike the scheme used on previous generations). The key is stored in the ACPI table "MSDM" (you can fetch this in Linux). There's really no particular reason to extract it, as a Win8 retail disk, if you install it, it will automatically activate, using the MSDM key. No other version of OS, will activate using that key (directly). The "free upgrade" to Windows 10 would have worked. But that's not a normal promotion. Win8/Win10 use MSDM. Since the key is stored in the BIOS chip, there is no reason to print a COA sticker for the outside of the machine. For Win7 or older, the SLIC table in the BIOS, contains information to support activation of "royalty OEM" OSes. The SLIC table says "I'm an Asus", and if the OS is an Asus OEM OS, it can be activated. The SLIC table would activate WinXP/Vista/Win7, so if Asus had three OSes for download, you could multi-boot with them. On SLIC machines, the license key used by the OS is "generic". A COA sticker with an emergency license key on it, allows the owner to install a retail OS later, if the hard drive fails. So SLIC is not a key, but it aids activation, and the SLIC needs a COA to complete the package. Paul |
Asus X550J laptop
"Paul" wrote
| Win8/Win10 use MSDM. Since the key is stored in the BIOS | chip, there is no reason to print a COA sticker for the | outside of the machine. | OK. I didn't know that. But if I want to download an ISO for a Win8 install disk it seems that I'd have to give MS a valid key as part of the operation -- at least that's what various online sources are saying. I don't have a Win8 disk. |
Asus X550J laptop
Mayayana wrote:
"Paul" wrote | Win8/Win10 use MSDM. Since the key is stored in the BIOS | chip, there is no reason to print a COA sticker for the | outside of the machine. | OK. I didn't know that. But if I want to download an ISO for a Win8 install disk it seems that I'd have to give MS a valid key as part of the operation -- at least that's what various online sources are saying. I don't have a Win8 disk. Use Heidoc URL generator. Click the "Copy to clipboard" buttons, then flip over to your favorite browser, and paste the URL there. The actual download URL will point to a Microsoft site. https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techno...-download-tool There used to be two versions of program, one for legacy systems and one for "very modern" Windows OSes. The legacy one was dropped, and now you need a higher minimum OS to run the URL generator. It uses IE to fake out the authentication requirements at TechBench or something. Once it gets TechBench to cough up a URL valid for 24 hours, you can download with some other browser. The copy to clipboard means the download will go on in a different place, than where the Heidoc generator is working. If you're worried about what the Heidoc generator is doing, run it in a VM until you're comfortable with it. The VM can have a bidirectional copy/paste buffer, so you can flip back to the host and do the actual download there. Paul |
Asus X550J laptop
Mayayana wrote:
"Paul" wrote .... Secure boot seems to be at least part of the problem. With that turned off I'm getting either a login to reset or error c000021a. Ophcrack can't find a password needed for the reset. But it's progress. Thanks. I never would have thought of secure boot acting like the hard disk is loose! http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm "0xC000021A: STATUS_SYSTEM_PROCESS_TERMINATED This occurs when Windows switches into kernel mode and a user-mode subsystem, such as Winlogon or the Client Server Runtime Subsystem (CSRSS), is compromised. " If you're getting that far along, then maybe it's a malware problem ? Or perhaps, an AV program has quarantined a file (false positive), trashing the machine. If you know an AV is present, see if you can figure out where the quarantines go. Alternately, if you know the AV used, check the news and see if a recent update caused mayhem amongst the user population. A false positive usually makes a big stink when a critical system file is moved. ******* You can use DISM and SFC, both in offline mode, to try and shore up system files. Normally, on a modern OS, DISM can chech on the Internet. If your Win10 booted, these can verify the content of WinSXS (for system stuff). The first checks a flag. The second does a read only scan. The third is read/write. You're supposed to try them in sequence for some reason. Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth Life is tougher of you're running DISM from a WinPE boot disk and a Command Prompt window. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...0a77fc1?auth=1 Bleckfield replied on November 11, 2015 mkdir c:\mount DISM.exe /mount-Image /ImageFile:d:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /mountdir:C:\mount\ /readonly # That would mount the WIM as a file system, within C:\mount # as the mount point. The mount point is merely a reference for # the beginning of the file tree mounted on top of it. DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth /Source:c:\mount\windows /LimitAccess # You can see that attempts to use the Windows folder on the # mount point, as a "reference" for restoration. It should be # able to restore any WinSXS files that happen to be on the # installer DVD version. It would help (obviously) if you use # a Win 8.1 disc of recent vintage - using a Win 8.0 DVD image # on a Win 8.1 system, I bet it would complain. # # As for the LimitAccess option, this is what it does. # I don't know if the network is even up, if you're running # WinPE by booting the installer DVD to Command Prompt. "You can use /LimitAccess to prevent the DISM tool from using Windows Update as a repair source or as a backup repair source for online images" So that's a basic idea as to how you could repair WinSXS. It may need some adjustments on your part, to get that working properly. If that finishes properly, the next thing is SFC, which checks that the System32 files are OK. You would do this in the same session. The trick here, is identifying which drive letter is which. I hate that, in this environment. Normally, X: is the Command Prompt OS partition. The C: partition could actually be C:, or in some cases it might be D: . I have to list disk contents until I'm convinced I'm pointed at the right partition to fix. The same issue arises, even with the previous command sequence - you have to positively identify your partitions, to pick "good" places to work :-) sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows So those two, would be intended to fix corrupted system files. This would be on a system that has already passed CHKDSK. And we all know, that using CHKDSK is a double-edged sword. It can fix stuff, or it can break stuff. It's nice to have a backup of the target, just in case you're not born lucky. You will need to salt these commands to taste. The above is merely some leads on what the commands *might* look like. Note - Eternal September has an incoming feed problem right now, which is damping the responses you might normally get. Good luck, Paul |
Asus X550J laptop
Paul wrote:
Mayayana wrote: "Paul" wrote .... Secure boot seems to be at least part of the problem. With that turned off I'm getting either a login to reset or error c000021a. Ophcrack can't find a password needed for the reset. But it's progress. Thanks. I never would have thought of secure boot acting like the hard disk is loose! I had a chance to try the dism and sfc commands. While booted from the DVD and using the Command Prompt window. My first problem was, I had older media downloaded from the MicrosoftStore. It uses install.esd instead of install.wim. I tried to get dism to mount the .esd and it refused. So I ended up downloading fresh media, using the Heidoc URL generator to generate links. That got me some media with install.wim as the largest file on the image. If you mount the ISO file on your technician machine, or if you use 7ZIP, you can copy the install.wim from the \sources folder. The install.wim has multiple OSes stored in it, indexed by an "index" number. Here, I'm checking the first index of the WIM, to see if it's a copy of Pro. This particular WIM has two OSes in it, Pro and Home, and there is no "/index:3". dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:f:\install.wim /index:1 Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.16299.15 Details for image : f:\install.wim Index : 1 Name : Windows 8.1 Pro Description : Windows 8.1 Pro --- the one I need ... The operation completed successfully. I copied that install.wim file, to the root of C: on my simulated "broken" drive. I did that so I would be sure to be able to access it. Next, was the actual dism run to repair the content. The command syntax was slightly different, as booting from the DVD is not the same as the example I found. In my simulated environment, the C: drive becomes D: when you boot to Command Prompt to do repair work. That's why the following might be a bit difficult to understand without a guide. It takes some time for the WIM to be unpacked. mkdir d:\mount dism /mount-Image /ImageFile:d:\install.wim /index:1 /mountdir:d:\mount\ /readonly Now, time to actually run a dism command. The d:\mount\windows contains the "golden" set of files. And d: is the thing being repaired. dism /image:d:\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:d:\mount\windows /limitaccess Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 6.3.9600.16384 Image Version: 6.3.9600.16384 The scratch directory size might be insufficient to perform this operation. This can cause unexpected behavior. Use the /ScratchDir option to point to a folder with sufficient scratch space. The recommended size is at least 1024 MB. [==========================100.0%================== ========] The restore operation completed successfully. The component store corruption was repaired. The operation completed successfully. Then I could try an SFC to finish the job. sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows Beginning system scan. This process will take some time. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. In principle, I could then boot into the OS on the hard drive, as all of its corrupted system files at least, would be put back. You could still have registry damage, home directory damage, a ton of other stuff. That's it, Paul |
Asus X550J laptop
"Paul" wrote
| "0xC000021A: STATUS_SYSTEM_PROCESS_TERMINATED | | This occurs when Windows switches into kernel mode and | a user-mode subsystem, such as Winlogon or the | Client Server Runtime Subsystem (CSRSS), is compromised. | " | | If you're getting that far along, then maybe it's a | malware problem ? Or perhaps, an AV program has | quarantined a file (false positive), trashing | the machine. I'm beginning to wonder about malware. The symptoms are so erratic. I was able to get a Win8.1 disk. (Heidoc didn't work for some reason, but MS's Rube Goldbergian download controller program did finally manage to produce an ISO.... Why can't they just give me a link?....) The other thing I wonder about is possible hardware short circuit. Maybe even RAM? But I'm doing this as a favor and I'm not prepared to start buying stuff to swap out. The boot manager and DVD drive disappear off and on, with no apparent pattern. I got the Win8.1 disk to run. It didn't need a key. It went to work for maybe 30 minutes. Then it suddenly said files are missing and quit. Then I tried a Refresh. That worked for a long time and then said the disk is locked. Unlock it and start again. In both cases there was a long period of disk activity first. The Windows disk seemed to see the whole thing OK. Something like 5 partitions. System, Restore, C, D.... something like that. I had to return to shutting off CSM because the install wouldn't touch the GPT partitions otherwise. But the DVD drive doesn't seem to like UEFI-mode. Or maybe it's just cranky this morning. Hard to tell. :) Question: If I bought a new hard disk and used the 8.1 DVD, can I make it install using the embedded key in the BIOS? I think the computer is Win8, but the 8.1 disk at least seemed like it meant to install normally, without asking for a key, until it failed. I don't know for sure about the BIOS, but aside from intermittently losing drives it seems to be OK. |
Asus X550J laptop
On 10/24/2017 06:12 PM, Mayayana wrote:
I've found this problem talked about online, but no help. System claims to analyze disk at boot, then repair starts, then screen goes blank. BIOS accessible. Unable to boot from CD. Very few options in the BIOS. I don't know where to start. Sometimes I get a disk inaccessible error. Other times not. Mybe the laptop has been dropped? I assume it's running chkdsk /f which may take a long time to complete. Just let it run. Walk away and come back an hour later. Also a good idea to go the the website of the HD's mfg ...get and run their diagnostic. If /any/ errors are found, replace the drive Might as well run a RAM test too |
Asus X550J laptop
Mayayana wrote:
Question: If I bought a new hard disk and used the 8.1 DVD, can I make it install using the embedded key in the BIOS? I think the computer is Win8, but the 8.1 disk at least seemed like it meant to install normally, without asking for a key, until it failed. I don't know for sure about the BIOS, but aside from intermittently losing drives it seems to be OK. I would think so. I don't have a way to test that here. I thought MSDM applied to both Win8 and Win10. And the MSDM for 8 should work for Win8 and Win8.1. If for some reason, the installer refuses to let you get past the license key entry dialog, you can use one of these. Windows 8.0 Pro: XKY4K-2NRWR-8F6P2-448RF-CRYQH Windows 8.0 Co FB4WR-32NVD-4RW79-XQFWH-CYQG3 Windows 8.1 Pro: XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB Windows 8.1 Co 334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT Those are install-only keys, which give you a 30 day grace period like on other OSes. And x32 versus x64 is not an issue with those - works for either. Once the install is done, you can use a command to change the license key, and fully activate it. Paul |
Asus X550J laptop
"philo" wrote
| I assume it's running chkdsk /f It's nowhere near that point. It won't boot to Windows at all. Most of the time it won't see the DVD to boot from that. No luck with USB. It starts up with a message about starting repair. Then it goes blank. Or it shows a bluescreen with C0000185, which seems to be CD not found. I managed to boot Memtest86, which ran fine, but then couldn't boot a BootIt disk, which I though I might use to try setting the restore partition active. It's very erratic. Even the Win8 install disk failed to do a fresh install. But I seem to be able to find all the problems online. A lot of people have had repair loop problems with Win8. The Win8 install disk error, that "some files are missing", also seems to be a known error. This is my first time dealing with GPT partitioning, UEFI, etc, so it's dificult to figure out what error means what. |
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