ASUS Zenbook UX303L - Unable to install Windows 10 Pro

MetalGN · 19 Apr 2020

Ladies and Gentlemen,

After 16 h attempting to install a Windows 10 Pro version on an ASUS Zenbook UX303L, I do have to capitulate...
I have never had, heard or seen such unbelievable difficulties/troubles on a Windows 10 installation.

Brief introduction:

A friend of mine asked me if I could take a look at her laptop after a Windows 10 update.
PC kept on rebooting from a BSoD loop and every day it took her 20-30 minutes trying to boot successfully.
With a lot of attempts and constantly hitting the ESC key, she was every day again able to boot to normal Desktop after numerous attempts.

Well, she already said there is a lot of crap and programs on the PC and thus, asked if I could re-install it completely from scratch for her.

First attempts to re-install Windows 10 Pro from USB always failed on the same: BSoD when booting from USB.

Easy one I thought.
Created USB Live bootable media with a "Kali" Linux installed on it, booted into Linux and formatted SSD (Sandisk) completely from within the Linux disk utility.
Thus, naked SSD in PC without any partition and all free non-allocated space.

Same time (Since I was already in LInux), I did a health check onto the SSD. (S.M.A.R.T. - Details)
Performed several short as well as long test runs and all succeeded with same result: Perfect SSD health state...

I can definitely exclude any issue from hardware..I am pretty much sure to at least 99,99 %

Nevertheless, after several hours of trying to install Windows 10 I am still unable...booting from USB in UEFI mode does not work at all (PC keeps on restarting in a loop without even entering any Windows setup) Regardless if "Secure Boot" is ON or OFF.

Secure Boot off with CSM enabled - at least the Windows Logo appears with a BSoD shortly after.

So I am stuck.

At this point there is not even a log file, right? (Since it is trying to boot Windows installer from USB?)

PC does not have a CD/DVD drive - so that is not possible either.

Attached, I am adding some information.
2 Pictures and a video showing what happens during windows boot.
1 Picture shows device type and serial no.
1 Picture shows what error message I got trying to boot from USB with a Windows-To-Go

PLEASE HELP - I am lost :-(

Many thanks from Austria,

- - - Updated - - -

For the video...

WeTransfer

file seems to big for attachment

dalchina · 19 Apr 2020

Your laptop seems to be from around 2016– is that correct?
How did you create the Win 10 installation disk?
Have you set boot priority so it boots from the disk- can you see that that is happening?

Can you boot any other PC from the same installation disk?

Ah.. your video seems to show the laptop attempting to boot and finishing with a message "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart Stop code: unsupported processor"

https://www.windows.com/stopcode
- which is totally irrelevant here.

Laptop is SN: FAN0CJ09238543G 24M

What is the processor?

Here’s the error message I captured in text form to make it easier for people: I’ve screen OCR’d it for you.

There is an invalid object in the Boot Configuration Data store.

Error code: Oxc00000bb

You'll need to use recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/Device manufacturer.

MetalGN · 19 Apr 2020

Hi dalchina,

Many thanks for your follow-up.

I am not absolutely sure it is from 2016-, but definitely not older than 2015, and since I am running a 2013 PC on Windows 10 myself as well, I don't believe the age should be an issue, hopefully.

I have created the USB installation media with:
(Tried multiple ways)

- Official media creation tool from Windows homepage

- Downloaded "Win_10_Pro_64Bit.ISO" from http://sell67.de/Win_10_Pro_64Bit.ISO
and created the USB with two different programs:
- Rufus
- Universal USB installer

Yes, I am sure about boot order.
Did also boot from USB with "force boot" from USB within BIOS

dalchina · 19 Apr 2020

Thanks. Given the stop code, what is the processor?

Seems likely to be Intel Core i7 8th Gen.
ASUS Zenbook UX303L 13.3" I7 Windows 10 256gb Laptop - Grey for sale online | eBay

If so, the message is misleading in that respect, but I suppose might indicate a hardware problem (can't idenitfy it)

MetalGN · 19 Apr 2020

Processor is an
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5500U

dalchina · 19 Apr 2020

It is worth checking you can boot another PC with an installation USB created using the MS media creation tool.

Do you have a live boot disk to hand? E.g.
Toolkit Item: Kyhi’s Rescue Disk – Win10.Guru
or
Bob.Omb's Modified Win10PEx64 - Best Rescue Disk 2018

Has any change been made to the laptop e.g. RAM upgrade?

UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR error along with many other BSoD errors can be caused by hardware problems. If you installed any new hardware recently be sure to remove it or replace it and check if the problem is fixed. If you didn’t install any new hardware, be sure to check your your processor, motherboard and RAM. To perform this step, you might need some spare components, and possibly some expert help, so you might want to take your PC to the repair shop.

UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR BSoD error usually appears when your processor doesn’t support the necessary instructions required for Windows 10 run properly, so be sure to check if your processor meets the hardware requirements and if it works properly.

MetalGN · 19 Apr 2020

"It is worth checking you can boot another PC with an installation USB created using the MS media creation tool."
Have tried now and Yes, it is working.

"Do you have a live boot disk to hand? E.g."
not yet, but I will try that asap.

"Has any change been made to the laptop e.g. RAM upgrade?"
No, nothing. That's what irritates me most actually.
I do not believe of hardware errors, especially since just for interest I have just installed CentOS on the PC...and that one is working without issues.

If of any help, I can provide a hardware overview from "dmidecode" command from Linux...?

dalchina · 19 Apr 2020

Outside possibility- CMOS battery? Sometimes can have weird effects.

Worth running a RAM check with one of the boot disks or Linux.

Presumably the previous Win 10 installation was also 64 bits, was it?

MetalGN · 21 Apr 2020

Many thanks for your advice concerning the "Bob.Omb's Modified Win10PEx64 - Best Rescue Disk 2018"
Installed that one onto the same USB memory and PC boots without problems.
With that one I was even able now to install the Win10 Pro version onto the PC SSD...(From the Rescue Disk tool kit)

However, after removing the USB memory and trying to boot windows from SSD, same BSoD appears.

Now I will try figuring out what's the difference between the Win10 Rescue disk version, and the Win 10 Pro version...

- - - Updated - - -

Brief follow-up on this matter:

It seems very much likely that this issue is related to the "Fall Creators" update back in September 2017

With the Bob.Omg's toolkit is was able to perfectly install a Win 8.1 version
Afterwards installed all official drivers from Asus homepage for the ZenBook; Finally I updated it with the downloaded Win10_1703_German_x64.iso to at least the Win 10.0.15063 Build 15063 version

However, that one is from September 2017 and I guess, equipped with some safety concerns and vulnerabilities?

If I try to run Windows update - it fails on reboot.

Error code 0xC1900101 - 0x20017

So I guess it fails on some driver migration with new OS, right?
How to figure out which one now and where to attack?

Many thanks.

dalchina · 21 Apr 2020

Hi, if I understand this, you clean installed 1703 and all was well, but attempting to apply what I presume was a feature update (upgrade) failed with Error code 0xC1900101 - 0x20017.

So presumably you clean installed 1703 without accepting updates as part of the installation procedure, then subsequently attempted to update.

Please confirm that after the clean install you installed nothing else- merely tried to upgrade.

It's quite possible that some older PCs cannot easily or successfully be update to a Windows version beyond a certain point. This may be due to changes in low-level drivers included in Windows, or in a change to driver versions delivered with a particular Windows build.

Diagnosing upgrade failure is notoriously uncertain and time consuming.

Feel free to research the forum and elsewhere for your error number.

The tutorial on upgrading to Win 10 has a section with links to more pages about inspecting log files and error messages etc.

You can try running setupdiag.exe from MS which attempts to analyse your log files. (just search for it).

You may end up finding you can't upgrade beyond a certain build.