Insider Dev Builds of 21H2 and Windows 11 fail to boot on an Asus ROG G703GXR

[Battleskar]

ASUS ROG G703GXR..

Intel Core i9-9980HK

64GB DDR4

RTX 2080 - 8GB GDDR6

Intel Advanced RST controller with 3 x NVMe drives and 1 x 2.5" SSD.

Any attempts to try insider builds of 21H2 and Win 11 result in hang after post, usb strobe (all USB lights go dark, then come back), a few drive activity blips, then nothing. It does not transition to the "spinning circle of dots" - whatever the official term for that is, I do not know.

Any insider updates to 21H1 work just fine. Reverting to 20H2, and updating, either directly to 21H2 or Win 11 fail. 20H2 to 21H1 works just fine.


What was changed in the boot processes for 21H2 and Windows 11 that would cause this kind of issue?

Attempts to try debug boots caused all kinds of headaches as they fail to log in when they cannot access the PIN or Fingerprint data from the web.

Finally ended up enabling local password authentication to get around that problem.

[Sven28]

I have the same problem whit the same system.
Any news ?

[Battleskar]

Another owner with the same problem posted on the Microsoft Insider support forum.

I am cross-linking the issue from both support forums.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/all/insider-dev-builds-of-21h2-and-windows-11-fail...

[MeisterDante]

I am also facing the same issue.

I have updated to the latest 308 BIOS version. I dont think any newer BIOS version has come out.

did anyone try deleting the keys from secure boot(BIOS) and installiing?

[Battleskar]

I have not, have you?

[Battleskar]

Tried resetting all keys to factory = no change, same problem.
Tried deleting all keys = no change, same problem.

Resetting all keys to factory defaults left secure boot enabled.
Deleting all keys disables secure boot.

[Battleskar]

This appears to be a platform specific issue, and one that will cause a lot of grief for ASUS Support if it isn't solved before the release of Win 10 21H2 or Win 11.

I've also sent this up through an ASUS ROG software beta channel that I participate in, but please, anyone from ASUS, chime in here, and get us the help we need.

Thanks!!

[tycroes]

Battleskar wrote:
This appears to be a platform specific issue, and one that will cause a lot of grief for ASUS Support if it isn't solved before the release of Win 10 21H2 or Win 11.

I've also sent this up through an ASUS ROG software beta channel that I participate in, but please, anyone from ASUS, chime in here, and get us the help we need.

Thanks!!

I can tell I tried cloning a windows 11 OS from my msi laptop on to a SSD disk and installed it on to my ASUS GT703. This usually works just remove msi uti;lities and replace with Asus. This it would not load the OS. ASUS are not the best when it comes to customer service I am just hoping it installs when regular windows update comes along.

[Battleskar]

Considering everything I've tried so far, I believe it to be either a firmware issue with the NVMe/SSD controller being mis-identified, therefor not loading the driver, or a TPM issue with missing/corrupt/expired certificates or certificate authorities.

Considering the logs showing that they cannot find the drives when attempted through the upgrade process from insider previews, and that it won't boot from ISO image written to USB or DVD by the official Microsoft media creation tool, more likely the controller / driver issue.

Had at least some hope from ASUS when the G703 pages were down and my G703 device record disappeared from my profile, but record is back and the G703 drivers/bios haven't changed.

Alas, sitting, waiting, frustrated at over 2 months of attempts to get ASUS to take ownership of their problem...

[Sven28]

Can anyone from Asus help us?