Need recovery advice

Back in May of this year, I posted about a problem I was having at that time. Here's the original post:
Laptop seems to be in Recovery mode - what now?
I got some suggestions but was busy with other things so I simply didn't touch the laptop again for a while.

Yesterday, I finally took a stab at the problem again and failed to resolve it. Here's what I tried and what happened:

1. Checked the Windows version with the "ver" command at the command prompt and got: 10.0.17763.107
2. Tried System Restore from most recent point (5/14/2019) but failed: "System restore failed while mounting the registry from the restore point. 0x80070020."
3. Tried System Restore from the previous point but failed: "System restore failed while mounting the registry from the restore point. 0x80070020."
4. Tried Startup Repair but failed: "Startup repair couldn't fix your PC. Logfile: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Logfiles\srt\SrtTrail.txt"
5. Tried "Reset this PC keeping my files" but failed: I was 89% through the reset when I left the room briefly to do a 10 minute chore; when I got back, the screen said "undoing changes" which was soon replaced with "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made."

Any idea what's going on with my laptop or what I should try next based on your assessment of what's wrong?

I have a backup of the most critical source code from that laptop so if I had to wipe the hard drive and start over, I wouldn't lose anything too critical but I'd rather restore it without having to reinstall a bunch of apps and copy all the source back if I could avoid it.

dalchina said:

Hi, start now by checking the disk.
HD Tune, Health and Error Scan tabs e.g.

Can you point me to instructions for where to find those utilities and how to run them from a command prompt?

Before clean / repair install try this:

1. Remove the laptop main battery, wait a few minutes then check the boot behaviour under mains power. This may reset something. You could also remove the CMOS battery if you can access it which will set the BIOS to defaults. Fit a new battery if the voltage is 2.8V or lower.
2. Create a Macrium Reflect USB boot disk using a working PC, boot from that and run the option Fix Boot Problems

dalchina said:

If you can't boot to the GUI - sorry, that's not clear from this thread unless I've missed something- the easiest thing is to use a live boot disk such as Kyhi's - top of the Software and Apps section- or an older version - it includes HD Tune:

Toolkit Item: Kyhi’s Rescue Disk – Win10.Guru

Can you boot to Safe Mode successfully? (e.g. via SHIFT + left click Restart and follow the prompts- Tuturial available)

Perhaps I'm just dense but I need further clarification on both things.

First, with respect to the Kyhi rescue disk, I clicked on the link which only talked about the disk but didn't give me a way to download it. But I clicked on a link with the article and it took me to a thread from 2015 that mentions where to download the disk but then has 156 pages (!) of followup questions. Am I going to need to read all of that to find the latest and greatest instructions that go with the latest and greatest version of the rescue disk? Or can I just use the link in the first page of the thread?

Second with respect to booting into safe mode, I'm not clear on when I am supposed to press SHIFT-LeftClick. I don't think I'm even getting to the BIOS since it says "Preparing Automatic Repair" and then "Diagnosing your PC" and then "Attempting repairs" as it starts to boot up; after that, I get the "Choose an option" blue screen; neither that page nor the Troubleshoot page contain a Safe Boot option.

- - - Updated - - -

Steve C said:

Before clean / repair install try this:

1. Remove the laptop main battery, wait a few minutes then check the boot behaviour under mains power. This may reset something. You could also remove the CMOS battery if you can access it which will set the BIOS to defaults. Fit a new battery if the voltage is 2.8V or lower.
2. Create a Macrium Reflect USB boot disk using a working PC, boot from that and run the option Fix Boot Problems

I can't figure out how to remove the battery on that laptop. I've just spent the last hour examining the machine trying to figure out how to access the battery - which has been dead easy on previous machines - and then reading manuals but none of the manuals describe how to remove the battery. It's an ASUS X554L and the manuals are rather problematic. The problem with the manuals is that I click on my model number but when I look at the URL of the resulting manual, I get one or more DIFFERENT model numbers, which makes me wonder if I'm really reading the right manual. For example, if I go here: Asus X554L Manuals, I get TWO manuals but if I click on any line of either Table of Contents, the URL at the top shows me a different model number in the URL. By the same token, if I go to the ASUS website, it asks me for my model number and when I specify X554L, it wants me to specify X554L plus one additional letter but I don't have any additional letters after the 'L'. If I click the first one, X554LI, I get a PDF whose URL which shows yet another model number, X555LI. I get that manufacturers make umpteen models of laptops and that there is probably a great deal in common amongst the different models so that maybe the model numbers are irrelevant: maybe every laptop ASUS made that year gives access to the battery the very same way! But I don't know that for certain and, in any case, the manuals I've looked at don't have anything about removing the battery. I was suspecting that this was a sealed unit where you can't remove the battery but there ARE advisories about disposing of the battery in an approved way rather than just tossing it in the local landfill and I've also found that you can buy a replacement third party battery for this model on Amazon (and presumably other places) so it looks like there IS a way to replace the battery but ASUS apparently chooses not to tell people how to do that in the manual. Can you advise me how to remove the battery?

As for the CMOS battery, it *may* be possible to remove it. According to page 18 of this manual, there is a small hatch on the back of the laptop that gives access to the RAM so that you can add more. https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/n...09_E9974_A.pdf. I see that hatch on the laptop which is having trouble. Am I likely to find the CMOS battery in there? I need to break the seal on the access screw to find out and I'm not sure if I want to do that if I'm not reasonably sure that it will get me to the CMOS battery....

RhinoCan said:

Perhaps I'm just dense but I need further clarification on both things.

First, with respect to the Kyhi rescue disk, I clicked on the link which only talked about the disk but didn't give me a way to download it. But I clicked on a link with the article and it took me to a thread from 2015 that mentions where to download the disk but then has 156 pages (!) of followup questions. Am I going to need to read all of that to find the latest and greatest instructions that go with the latest and greatest version of the rescue disk? Or can I just use the link in the first page of the thread?

Second with respect to booting into safe mode, I'm not clear on when I am supposed to press SHIFT-LeftClick. I don't think I'm even getting to the BIOS since it says "Preparing Automatic Repair" and then "Diagnosing your PC" and then "Attempting repairs" as it starts to boot up; after that, I get the "Choose an option" blue screen; neither that page nor the Troubleshoot page contain a Safe Boot option.

- - - Updated - - -



I can't figure out how to remove the battery on that laptop. I've just spent the last hour examining the machine trying to figure out how to access the battery - which has been dead easy on previous machines - and then reading manuals but none of the manuals describe how to remove the battery. It's an ASUS X554L and the manuals are rather problematic. The problem with the manuals is that I click on my model number but when I look at the URL of the resulting manual, I get one or more DIFFERENT model numbers, which makes me wonder if I'm really reading the right manual. For example, if I go here: Asus X554L Manuals, I get TWO manuals but if I click on any line of either Table of Contents, the URL at the top shows me a different model number in the URL. By the same token, if I go to the ASUS website, it asks me for my model number and when I specify X554L, it wants me to specify X554L plus one additional letter but I don't have any additional letters after the 'L'. If I click the first one, X554LI, I get a PDF whose URL which shows yet another model number, X555LI. I get that manufacturers make umpteen models of laptops and that there is probably a great deal in common amongst the different models so that maybe the model numbers are irrelevant: maybe every laptop ASUS made that year gives access to the battery the very same way! But I don't know that for certain and, in any case, the manuals I've looked at don't have anything about removing the battery. I was suspecting that this was a sealed unit where you can't remove the battery but there ARE advisories about disposing of the battery in an approved way rather than just tossing it in the local landfill and I've also found that you can buy a replacement third party battery for this model on Amazon (and presumably other places) so it looks like there IS a way to replace the battery but ASUS apparently chooses not to tell people how to do that in the manual. Can you advise me how to remove the battery?

As for the CMOS battery, it *may* be possible to remove it. According to page 18 of this manual, there is a small hatch on the back of the laptop that gives access to the RAM so that you can add more. https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/n...09_E9974_A.pdf. I see that hatch on the laptop which is having trouble. Am I likely to find the CMOS battery in there? I need to break the seal on the access screw to find out and I'm not sure if I want to do that if I'm not reasonably sure that it will get me to the CMOS battery....

Does this guide help ASUS X554 Series disassembly video and photo guide

It says to remove the screws underneath them remove the keyboard assembly from above which is unusual. You can then access the man battery. I can see the CMOS battery on the motherboard too.