ASUS laptop no-boot...loads to black screen with spinning cursor?

Hi all - looking at an ASUS laptop for a friend, but I'm stumped.

It's an ASUS Viviobook Max running Win10. She turned it on the other morning and it just boots to a black screen with a spinning cursor. The cursor spins, stops.....spins, stops, spins stops and just goes on and on like that forever.

I tried System Restore to a restore point 2 days before she said the problem started....the System Restore says it completed successfully, but on boot, it gives the same black screen and spinning cursor.

Booting it into safe mode gives a "the system detected an overrun of a stack-based buffer" error for Logonui.exe, so I can't get anything done in safe mode as, I click on OK on that error, the same error just pops up again and again and again.

I've tried going into the command prompt from a Win10 Media Creation USB and running "sfc /scannow' with the correct offbootdir and offwindir options, but it instantly gives a 'Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.' error?

I ran a chkdsk in case that was a problem, but 'sfc /scannow' still gives the same error.

Does anybody have any idea where I could go from here, or why my sfc command is failing?

Thanks! :)

Option 1: Perform Startup Repair in Advanced Startup Settings
Step 1: Forcefully shut down your computer for 3 times holding down both Left and Right Shift keys on the keyboard to enter Windows recovery environment and then click See advanced repair options.
Step 2: Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options and choose Startup Repair.



This tool will start diagnosing your computer and fix the detected potential problems that prevent it loading properly. The repair process will take some time to complete and you should wait patiently.

Option 2: Perform Startup Repair Using Windows Installation Media
If you cannot access the recovery environment using the common way, you can choose to employ an installation media, such as USB bootable media.
Step 1: Burn a USB installation media using Windows 10 Media Creation Tool in a normal computer.
Step 2: Connect the bootable USB drive to the problematic device and boot from it by changing the BIOS settings.
Step 3: When you get the Windows Setup window, enter your language and other preferences and click Next button.
Step 4: Click Repair your computer to enter the recovery environment and launch Startup Repair by referring

o the steps in the above content.


If that fails: Back up Data and Reinstall Your Windows

spunk said:

Option 1: Perform Startup Repair in Advanced Startup Settings
Step 1: Forcefully shut down your computer for 3 times holding down both Left and Right Shift keys on the keyboard to enter Windows recovery environment and then click See advanced repair options.
Step 2: Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options and choose Startup Repair.



This tool will start diagnosing your computer and fix the detected potential problems that prevent it loading properly. The repair process will take some time to complete and you should wait patiently.

Option 2: Perform Startup Repair Using Windows Installation Media
If you cannot access the recovery environment using the common way, you can choose to employ an installation media, such as USB bootable media.
Step 1: Burn a USB installation media using Windows 10 Media Creation Tool in a normal computer.
Step 2: Connect the bootable USB drive to the problematic device and boot from it by changing the BIOS settings.
Step 3: When you get the Windows Setup window, enter your language and other preferences and click Next button.
Step 4: Click Repair your computer to enter the recovery environment and launch Startup Repair by referring

o the steps in the above content.


If that fails: Back up Data and Reinstall Your Windows

I ended up having to do a wipe and reinstall, unfortunately.

Sometimes that is the cleanest, fastest option.

spapakons said:

For future reference:
If the disk has logical errors and Windows fail to load properly, usually a check disk can fix it. To do that you must go at command prompt and issue the command chkdsk c: /f substitute C with the appropriate drive letter if necessary.
If the user account is corrupt and Windows cannot login, you must temporarily enable the Administrator account, login to that and attempt to fix. If cannot be fixed due to extensive damage, you can create a new user, copy paste all your data from C:\users\username to the same folders of the new user, then delete the original user.
There are cases that Windows cannot normally start due to some faulty driver (like I suspect was the OP's case). On the troubleshooting screen you select to change Windows startup behavior and you are presented with a list. Chose to start Windows in Safe Mode to bypass any faulty driver. Then you must update all drivers (in case you don't know which one is the faulty one). After that restart and Windows should load properly.

I'd tried a checkdisk and it made no difference, sadly. The disk is a fairly new TeamGroup SSD.