Bootup Issue

[KrystalDragon]

Yesterday my computer froze while opening Adobe Photoshop. When it shut down, on bootup it gave me an error 0xe000021a and told me to insert the recovery CD (which I do not have). I contacted the people that I got the computer from, they said I could make a CD by going to a microsoft link and create one. When trying to do that, the utility requires windows 7+, and my only other option is win XP or a mac. Contacting them again they said "Sorry, you're SOL." And refuse further help.

The computer that is broken is running windows 8.1. I had some issues with it last month which you guys were nice enough to help me with. Link to that thread: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,149396.0.html
Nothing has really changed since then. No new downloads except some windows updates. I can get to the bios and dink around in there. I found an ISO image of win 8.1 that I image burned to a jump drive. The bios sees it as a bootable device, but I cannot seem to get it to boot to it. I do see that secure boot is on, not sure if that has anything to do with it. But I cannot seem to get that to turn off to try it.

The full order of things happens as follows:
Start computer it says it's preparing automatic repair. Here I can hit F2 or Delete to go to the bios. Eventually it errors out giving me:
Your computer cannot start properly error 0xc0000185
(suggests using the recovery tools on the CD)
Enter to try again, F8 for startup options, Esc for UEFI Firmware settings.
30 seconds or so it auto-reboots. At this point I lose the keyboard but it looks like a normal bootup taking a really long time.
Eventually errors out saying:
Your PC ran into a problem and will automatically restart. Error 0xe000021a
Start over from the beginning.

My machine is an Asus M51AD-B05 model. Nothing changed from the base. Purchased as an open box from Best Buy. No CD's, keys, or anything came with the thing. Just the computer and pre-loaded windows 8.1
All updates have been done, windows and direct from manufacturer drivers for hardware.

I *believe* unrelated: a week or so ago my video card fan started making a funky vibration noise. I turned off the computer immediately and took the vacuum and canned air to the machine. Several dust-balls later all was up and running fine.

I'm at a loss as to where to go. Any help would be appreciated.
~Christine~

[Blair]

I have the same piece of....hardware, Christine!...I bought it new and have always had the same problem ever since new.

I solved this problem by going into either the bios or uefi and turning off secure boot, making sure that the boot order was correct and f10 to save the settings.
To enter the bios....On power-on, press delete keyyou might have to press it amost simultaneous as powering on because it is a very fast booting computer.

feel free to ask more!

Blair

[KrystalDragon]

Thanks for replying Blair. I can get into the bios just fine. I cannot seem to turn off the secure boot. There isn't an "off" option. Just a greyed out area saying it's enabled. Suggestions on trying to kick that off?

[Blair]

In BIOS at the BOOT option....you'll find it...choose the other OS option...try that!

[Blair]

....sorry.  You must be in advanced mode for the option change to be visible...let me know!
Blair

[Blair]

....also check CSM and either disable uefi or set it to use both uefi and legacy

[Geek-9pm]

For many years I have stuck with Windows XP. Now I sea that you just have to go with Windows 8.1 and learn how it dorks.

Here is a sort list of important links about the repair and install of WIndows 8.1 for the average user.

For windows 8.1 computers.
How to refresh, reset, or restore your PC

Create installation media for Windows 8.1

Non-destructive reinstall of Windows 8 and 8.1

My personal recommendation  t\is to try it first on a spare computer, or else get a cheap HDD to experiment with.   

EDIT: MS offers support.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/get-support/windows/windows-8-1/repair-recovery/repairing-my-software

[KrystalDragon]

Thank you for the various responses.
Here's where we are:
Blair: I did get Secure Boot turned off (I had to disable the keys in advanced mode first). No difference on boot up.
CSM I set up to go to IDE normal and IDE legacy. Same errors, no difference in bootup.
Geek-9pm: Thank you for your various links. Here's what I have on those.
First link: Requires you to be able to get into windows. I cannot get to any version, safemode or otherwise, nor can I get into the advanced options by holding shift currently.
Second link: Only works if you have a windows system 7 or newer. There's another link that is similar that is a full iso image download for win 8.1 that requires the same. I only have a windows xp system available to me currently. Highly annoying.
Third link: most of the links require getting into windows to do the system troubleshooter, etc. I'm unable to do those. The ones that I could do (IE switching to SATA instead of ACHI in boot system) I tried to no avail.
I have tried contacting Microsoft directly. Their answer is basically to contact the manufacturer or to re-purchase Windows 8.1 and go through a full reinstall in hopes there are no hardware issues.

[Blair]

Have you ever considered having a go at Linux?  I am an avid XP user as well and still have a running copy on an offline machine. My wife has Win 7 on her lappie and I put Win7 on that Asus that I had the issue with, but my preference now is Linux Mint 17.1 KDE, this is what I use on my personal coomputer.  Free, no virus or spyware to worry about or the added cost of the software to protect from them.....Linux runs my whole office productively!
....but that is only my opinion...I hope you success in solving your issue

Blair

[KrystalDragon]

Thank you Blair,
I actually love Linux. And unix. Never had an issue with my Mac and it tri-boots to win XP and Ubuntu. Unfortunately I have some work software that requires Windoze. Getting it to play nicely with Linux is rough and every update they do (which is often) is a constant hassle.
Thanks again for your help.
~Christine~

[Geek-9pm]

Wiat.
I missed that part about you have to use Windows XP.
The recovery options for Windows XP are different.

You want a Windows XP install CD
or
a Windows XP recovery console CD.
free: recovery console for xp.(rc.iso)
Please look at it. You need a working PC or MAC to make the CD.

[KrystalDragon]

Nono! My problem computer is windows 8.1 that computer is completely down. That is the one I am having problems with.
The windows xp machine is the one I am on right now talking to you and researching. The xp machine only came up because one of the links given was a "create a repair disc". That link requires a windows 7+os to make the disc.
Incidently I did get the people who sold me the computer to make me a repair disc. The disc has window 8.
The "refresh the system" failed, no changes made
The "repair the system" hung for over 3 hours.
I'm currently doing a check disk. Errors so far:

Chkdsk discovered free space marked as allocated in bitmap for index $SDH for file 9.
Sorting index $SDH in file 9.

A disc read error occurredc0000185.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 9065.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 9065.
Sorting index $I30 in file 9065.

A disk read error occurredc0000185
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 11131.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 11131.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 11131.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 11131.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 11131.

[Geek-9pm]

OK. Now I see. The Win 8 box is down and you use the XP PC to post.
It looks like a hard disk failure. Moist likley a lot of bad sectors, be there are other things that can also look like that. It takes hours and hours to repair bad sectors using the normal tools from Microsoft. This is because the program wants to recover the lost data, which may be near impossible.

At this point my best recommendation is to buy or borrow a spare HDD that will fit in your Win 8 machine. Then  plan to bring up Windows 8.1 on the spare HDD. The sparse HDD does not need to be perfect, just good.

Here is a link that reviews the steeps to bring up Windows 8.1 for the first time.

Create installation media for Windows 8.1

PC with a reliable Internet connection. The download is about 4 GB and the time it takes to download will vary based on your PC, your connection speed, and other factors.

Windows 8 quill allow you to go ahead and install even if you do not yet have a product key and/or can not validate it.

You need a PC with a DVD burner. Windows XP is OK, but you have to get a free program to burn the ISO to a DVD.
DVD ISO burner for Windows XP
Just download the free burner. Ignore the ads for other stuff.
Hope this works. I have brought up Windows 8 four or five times on PCs that only had XP available.

It should work for you. Later you can try to recover whatever data you have on the funky hard drive.

[KrystalDragon]

Sorry for the confusion.
That link takes me to a spot that has me download an executable file. Upon clicking the exe downloaded it says it requires windows 7 or newer OS to run the utility.
I have a SSD on its way to me via Newegg. Now I am just trying to figure out how to save my stuff to a jump drive using a command prompt.
Thank you all for your help.