Oh %^&*(). !!!

[kib]

So I look up from making dinner to see my laptop flashing blue and updating its bios, unasked by me. I managed to get it shut off but, no surprise, now it won't come back to life. Any suggestions on where to start??
>:(

[Gardnr]

You need to get a USB from the manufacturer of your machine to reinstall. Hubster says this is a tough one and there is no alternative in his 27y experience.

[Alan]

I've never seen a 'flashing' blue screen of death. In the past I'd restart a Windows machine in 'safe mode' and activate the operating system's diagnostic utility. I'm not sure if that works on current Windows versions though.

If you can't make the machine start up and you have a copy of it's operating system, I'd try booting from that media and then follow instructions for repairing the installed version.

[kib]

Thank you, Gardnr. I feel like this was a virus as I've never seen a flashing bios as part of a legitimate update, but maybe the computer was just running an update and I interrupted it? Does it make any difference? :(

[kib]

Thanks Alan. Hubs looked over and said "why is your computer flashing?", I came out and saw the bios updating and held the off button til it shut down. I've never been able to create an os disk worth crap, and this is no exception. :|( All that I can do is push the on-off button, in which case the on-off button is either lit or not lit. No matter which F key I press I am not whisked into bios-land. - Asus, windows 10.

[SteveinMN]

Not to be that guy, but interrupting a BIOS/firmware update can result in "bricking" the computer -- corrupting its basic instruction set and leaving in unable to boot. The data on your hard drive should be safe. But you may need to find someone who can fix ASUS computers to service the BIOS circuitry and get it back to where it should be. If F2 does not get you to the setup screen, a repair tech probably is your next stop, I'm afraid.

[kib]

Not to be that guy, but interrupting a BIOS/firmware update can result in "bricking" the computer -- corrupting its basic instruction set and leaving in unable to boot. The data on your hard drive should be safe. But you may need to find someone who can fix ASUS computers to service the BIOS circuitry and get it back to where it should be. If F2 does not get you to the setup screen, a repair tech probably is your next stop, I'm afraid. Thank you for being That Guy! I'd rather think I messed up a legitimate update than my data was targeted. I keep things encrypted but this is seriously not the time for an id or bank theft. I'll bring it to the Other Guy tomorrow. Again, thanks Steve, and Gardnr, and Alan.

[ToomuchStuff]

I've never seen a computer that updates its own bios, that is something that is always been initiated by the user.

[Alan]

I've never seen a computer that updates its own bios, that is something that is always been initiated by the user.Yeah, I've never seen that either. I think somethings not right in this scenario.

[SteveinMN]

Could be a firmware update rather than a BIOS update. I've never in my entire life selected "Automatic updates" from the preferences list because I want too much control over my computers, but I've seen "automatic" as an option many times and I know for a fact that some macOS updates do some unannounced updates behind the scenes (malware definitions, sometimes device drivers) as part of OS updates. The Windows world may be too Balkanized to be able to do that, but one would imagine Asus has access to their own stuff.

[kib]

I'm taking it in today, assuming my repair shop is open. It's possible that crashing the bios was the best case scenario, I don't think this was a legit update either although as I've said, I would like to think so. Some of my updates are automatic on shutdown, but this came out of nowhere and I've never seen a flashing blue screen before. Now my choices are to mail it off under warranty, which ordinarily would take 3 weeks + and with cv I don't even know if the repair center is open, or pay pay pay to have it fixed here. I guess CV got me a little after all, if this is the worst impact I feel, boy am I lucky.

[JaneV2.0]

I'm taking it in today, assuming my repair shop is open. It's possible that crashing the bios was the best case scenario, I don't think this was a legit update either although as I've said, I would like to think so. Some of my updates are automatic on shutdown, but this came out of nowhere and I've never seen a flashing blue screen before. Now my choices are to mail it off under warranty, which ordinarily would take 3 weeks + and with cv I don't even know if the repair center is open, or pay pay pay to have it fixed here. I guess CV got me a little after all, if this is the worst impact I feel, boy am I lucky.

Auto-updates for Windows 10 seem to be a common concern on various tech sites.