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

Anonymous
2021-07-03T19:52:10+00:00

I've tried just about every release of 21H2 as well as the new release of Windows 11.

So far, they all react the same way.

Download works fine.

Update during restart works fine.

If further updates need to install, that boot sequence works fine and updates continue to install.

Once it reboots with no further updates to install, the post finishes, there is a bit of disk activity after the post before the spinning circle of dots would normally appear.

That is as far as the boot goes.

It just hangs there, indefinitely.

I've left it sit there for over 48 hours to no avail.

My only recourse is to physically power off the laptop, wait, turn back on and the upgrade is rolled back to the 21H1 installation I am running from the insider beta channel.

The G703GXR is a desktop replacement laptop.

It runs an Intel Core i9, 9980HK, 8 core (2.4Ghz to 5Ghz).

It also has an NVidia RTX 2080.

64GB RAM, 8GB VRAM

1 x Samsung 970 Pro 512GB NVMe for boot.

2 x Samsung 980 SSD 1TB (part of storage space)

1 x Samsung 860 QVO 2TB (part of storage space)

2 x Samsung 970 Pro 512GB NVMe inside ROG ESD-S1C USB-C enclosures.

I've checked and triple-checked all the CMOS/UEFI settings, trying different combinations.

I've gone as far as re-installing from scratch using the 21H1 USB ISO image (which cost me my W10 Pro for Workstations digital license when not all the devices matched the prior install).

I then attempted the 21H2 and W11 insider previews again, same hang at the same place.

What are the differences in the boot sequence for 21H2 and W11 from 21H1?

Is there a way to get any logs or debug information from the boots?

Windows Insider program | Windows Insider preview | Install, activate, and Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-09-24T18:31:18+00:00

    Unfortunately, no.

    All W11 releases continue to fail to get to the SCoD.

    ASUS ticket has no updates beyond, still working on it, and they know it's important... /sigh

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-09-24T14:33:03+00:00

    Any update?

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-09-11T06:18:03+00:00

    Downloading now.

    Received word back from ASUS, some new platform drivers are on the way...

    Of course, then those will have to be merged with the W11 iso images so the system will actually boot with them.

    That is unless the changes are UEFI/BIOS or TPM related.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-09-10T23:53:15+00:00

    There is another official MS insider ISO that you can try to boot from, 22454.1000 is now available to download from the MS insider site, check it out. Also that fits on a FAT32 USB flash because the install.wim is smaller than 4GiB.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-09-07T22:39:37+00:00

    They all showed mounted correctly, as I suspected.

    Something very hinky is going on during boot, either post insider upgrade or boot from dual-layer DVD in that it never gets to the SCoD (spinning circle of dots)...

    ASUS was not very helpful... usual platitudes about - unreleased OS, we'll check on it, i'll forward your request to upper tier, cannot promise anything, blah, blah, blah...

    I wish the dvd boot had a way to store a log of what happened prior to the hang... or a text mode boot that would show what's happening during that boot.

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