The PC fails to progress beyond the BIOS setup.
The PC fails to progress beyond the BIOS setup.
Hi, your PC has been acting strangely recently. After a brief absence, it froze, stopped responding to input, and the screen didn’t move properly. When you returned, you restarted it and went through BIOS setup. Now you’re seeing either an endless ASUS logo circle or a "preparing automatic repair" message followed by a black screen. The BIOS confirms your drive is detected and passed self-test. You’ve tried several fixes—removing devices, resetting BIOS, clearing CMOS, re-seating the drive, and even reinstalling via USB—but nothing worked until setup started. It’s still running, though you can’t use the mouse. Could be a hardware issue or a corrupted boot sector. Consider checking the power supply, testing with another USB port, or consulting a technician for deeper diagnostics.
You’ve already attempted a full reinstall of Windows and encountered a crash after a certain point. It seems the issue might occur when loading the operating system, possibly due to storage problems. Removing the storage drive and using a different SSD could help determine if the problem lies with the drive itself or your installation process.
During setup, I navigate to the language selection page, proceed to the next step, but the process halts at the setup start. It doesn’t seem like the installation is actually reinstalling. I have multiple SSDs available, yet I can’t advance far enough in the setup. This was my first assumption, but the inability to install the USB version of Windows 11 suggests something might be wrong. Could it be that the drive is faulty? I’ll attempt to remove it and check the situation.
This didn't resolve either, still stuck on the same screen. In the black display when trying to boot, pressing Win + arrow keys reveals a window named Winpeshl.exe, though it appears blank. I can also move the mouse. It's less than a year old, so I should have warranty coverage. I'll try it now.
I disconnected all but a single SSD and attempted to run the USB installer; it progressed further than before, so I powered off the PC, reinserted the boot drive, and everything worked again. Probably one of my backup SSDs, I’m curious why they don’t just stop safely? They’re essentially just additional storage.