Asus K55 boot error

[phoyphoy]

First, let me provide you with some history before mentioning my exact error (s). I am a full time Information Systems/Information Technology/Computer Information Sciences (whatever my school is calling it this semester) student. I used to have a Dell Laptop as my primary laptop (and it is what I am using to report this issue.). After getting jerked around by Dell for 3 years (the length of the warranty I had with them), I became fed up and decided to just buy a new laptop instead of trying to repair it. September 1st, 2012, I go to Wal-Mart and buy a brand new Asus K55 laptop with a 3 year warranty. The specs just blow my Dell LATITUDE|E6400 out of the water. It was superior in every way. 6 GB RAM instead of 2. 750 GB Hard disk space instead of 120. Windows 7 Home Premium edition instead Windows Vista Business. A full keyboard with a keypad instead of a heavily condense keyboard. 8 hour battery on low usage, 4 hours on high instead 4 hours on low and 1 hour on high. 14" screen instead of 11" screen. A pound lighter. I mean in every way you could compare the 2 laptops, the Asus K55 was superior. Except maybe brand recognition. But I wasn't looking for brand recognition. I was looking for a computer that could handle the programs I have to use for school.

In the last 3 days, I have been experience BSODs with the Netio.sys message. Did a little research, found out that it was linked to torrent clients. I was not downloading any funky files or doing anything illegal. In fact, I only downloaded OCRemix albums (torrent use encouraged by the OCRemix site).

But anyways, I uninstalled my torrent clients and still got the message. So, I did some more research and found out that the issue could also be linked to prepackaged anti-virus. I had Trend-Micro prepackaged, and was never able to get it to work. So, I uninstalled Trend-Micro, uninstalled and reinstalled MSE, then rebooted my machine. Ran a scan with MSE, then a system file check just to make sure. No issues. I try to work on my database homework last night, run a script in Oracle 11G to populate a database.

Anyways, when I click run script, my laptop just shutdown. Whenever I tried booting it up, it would direct itself Asus Preload Wizard. I followed the steps of the Wizard, received the options of Recover to first partition, recover to hard disk, recover to hard disk to two partitions.

I didn't have anything on the laptop that I couldn't live without. Yes, It would have been a pain in the butt to reinstall all the programs I need for class and to restart the homework from scratch, but I didn't have the time to think of all my options. I only knew that I couldn't wait 2-4 weeks for it to be sent in for support and wait for it to be returned. I had homework due in 48 hours.

So, I select the recover to first partition option. Then an error message. The blue bar read: [diskpart /s X:\Tools\FormatScript1cf6e.txt] meet error!! with the word "ERROR" in big red uppercase letters on a white background. Not able to find anything about the error message online (used google, bing, and yahoo), I called technical support. They guided me through steps to fix it. Remove the battery, unplug it, hold a button down for 30 seconds, press f8/f9, etc. Nothing fixed the problem. I was told to send it in and they would take a look at my machine, give me a price for the repair and tell me how long I would have to wait for it, but it would probably be 6 to 8 weeks.

As I have previously mentioned, I am a student. I cannot wait several weeks for my laptop to be fixed, and I cannot afford another new laptop. I need help figuring out what is wrong with it.

[Zygomorphic]

Did you build the recovery DVDs? That, or do you have a Windows installer disk lying around (punch in the activation code on the bottom of your laptop)? If so, you just have a bad recovery image, which is nothing to worry about. Alternately, try booting a LINUX USB key to see if the drive is good. If you do not have a Windows disc lying around, download it (legally!) from Microsoft and burn it to a DVD. MS lets you, but you have to provide the activation code (on the bottom of the computer).

[phoyphoy]

Zygomorphic wrote:
Did you build the recovery DVDs? That, or do you have a Windows installer disk lying around (punch in the activation code on the bottom of your laptop)? If so, you just have a bad recovery image, which is nothing to worry about. Alternately, try booting a LINUX USB key to see if the drive is good. If you do not have a Windows disc lying around, download it (legally!) from Microsoft and burn it to a DVD. MS lets you, but you have to provide the activation code (on the bottom of the computer).

I was unable to build the recovery DVDs. The only option the laptop gave me, prior to this mess starting, was to use a back-up disk.

I have a Windows Vista installer disk lying around, but not a Windows 7. However, through my school I have the option to download 1 copy of Windows 7. Would this work?

[Zygomorphic]

That would work just fine! 🙂 You can also download through Microsoft (legally). They provide the ISO, but you must provide the activation code (All you actually pay for).

[phoyphoy]

All right, I downloaded a new Windows 7 image, burned it to a dvd rom. The optical drive still operates, thankfully. This time, I received a new error message. AsRecoveryHD - Failed to get Recovery drive letter! Not the result I was hoping for, but progress none the less.

[Zygomorphic]

Can you install the new Win 7 image - format the entire drive if you need to? This would wipe out the recovery image, but it doesn't sound like that is working anyway.

[phoyphoy]

Zygomorphic wrote:
Can you install the new Win 7 image - format the entire drive if you need to? This would wipe out the recovery image, but it doesn't sound like that is working anyway.

Admittedly, despite being an IT/ISYS/CIS major, my experience with formatting drives is lacking.

All I have done is inserted the Win 7 disc into my optical drive and rebooted the machine. The only option I am given is the Asus Preload Wizard.

I am going to try and burn an Ubuntu usb drive sometime today and see if I can boot from that. However, it is not looking promising.

EDIT: I am going to try and contact the ITS help desk at my school in a few hours to see if they can assist me in any way. Supposedly, I have been paying for this service these last 4 years (I've tried to use it before, to no avail).

[Zygomorphic]

Make sure to enter the BIOS (press delete, F12) and make sure to boot from CD/DVD first. It is possible that HDD is first boot priority in order to get the system running quicker. Just something to check. Let me know how the ITS call goes! 🙂