Hello,
I am at my wit's end resolving fresh Windows Update install errors on my new Asus ZenBook. I have recently purchased a new model UX393EA ZenBook S 13. It is unused until my purchase though I believe it is a generation old.
Fresh install Windows 10 from recovery and also newly created installation media on USB. In fact, a dozen fresh installs at this point and also attempts with Windows 11. Continued identical problem no matter what as outlined below.
I am receiving various errors continuously from Windows Update that references in search results relate to basically nothing but account user profile local data problems. Windows Update and the store apps give errors:
* Windows Update -There were some problems installing updates, but we'll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help: (0x801901f4)
* Microsoft Store - Something unexpected happened - Reporting this problem will help us understand it better. You can wait a bit and try again or restart your device. That may help. Code: 0x801901F4
I have tried everything that's obvious, intermediate, technical, and 'advanced' in effort to fix this update error. Bios has been updated through package given in MyAsus. Nothing resolves the problem, and I am at the end of my road timewise and with frustration. I'm at the point of recklessly downloading registry changes and running them without review, if that drives the point home.
The error code seems fully irrelevant. I did test a fresh Windows 10 identical install using same media on another system. I used the same Microsoft account there without problem. The problem here is not Windows and it is not Microsoft account related.
The only thing I can imagine at this point is corruption in some way to the system hardware's firmware or microcode and I have no idea how to even properly attempt a resolution on reflashing etc. I don't want to brick the 1700 dollar thing.
My only hint to the problem source is that there is the mention of "<!DOCTYPE" in my system model name - for the last half of it. I.e.: MyAsus_Model <!DOCTYPE
This inclusion of the word doctype leads me to believe that an http request to a website was used to retrieve a model number or configuration, say at the factory, which then failed and instead giving an HTML page, breaking the system in some way.
Please help =(
Thank you.
Hi there, thank you for taking the time to reply.
I have performed these steps again for completeness. Overall, I've gone through these along with a multitude of additional steps toward resolution e.g., dsim with restorehealth etc along with a locally mounted system image to the same build, many sfc scannow, troubleshooters, safe mode variants, driver reinstall/change of install order to be certain I'm in agreement with docs, reinstallation of windows, recreation of install media on other USB drives, attempt at reinstall and booting via external SSD (that was fun), BIOS adjustments such as disabling VMD (only SSD in this), TPM, secure boot, you name it, reinstallation of drivers, synchronization of time verified, timezone, my windows account is enable setup working and valid long-time standing + enabled windows hello, on/off password-less account, clearing CAB and softwaredistribution, I could go on and on.
To go through these for completeness and not seem like I'm discrediting any resolution steps:
1) Windows Store outright bails at any attempt to install/update packages, or to check for any updates in general. Example:
Note that the error code here sometimes returns results relating to an unverified Microsoft Account (see above - Account is great standing, configured, and working all over in general). Code: 0x801901F4
2) Clock and date are synchronized and verified using another laptop - as best I can tell, to the second. BIOS/UEFI clockies as well.
3) I do find BITS service stopped from time to time. I've inspected logs / events without much direction or indication on related found. When deleting these, I usually will include CatRoot catroot2 directories. And I usually outright rename them, then do the rm -rf boom to trash them rather than selecting and individual files
Overall I think that I have two leads - 1) No matter the reinstall version, time, details or anything, this is what my System Model always is:
Weird, right? I've also gone as far as to search the entire filesystem and change any text found to be UX393EA_XB77T rather than UX393EA_<!DOCTYPE. That literal text <!DOCTYPE is the initial portion of most HTML webpage markup - the stuff browsers do the needful with to display website shenanigans.
Finding that DOCTYPE tag portion within the latter half of the system model would lead me to believe at some point, something on this system was written with information sourced from an HTTP request, and the response body of that HTTP request must have been assumed by caller to contain an expected model number suffix or similar. For unknown reasons for us, instead that HTTP response contained HTML and that was what was written. So replacing that in attempt to clean up the System Model is what I meant in the above paragraph. Absolutely no luck in this regard, though. My hunch here is that this is involved in the problem I'm facing overall. I would bet that whatever system out there within the Windows ecosystem and updates is being passed this crazy model name with the special characters <! and freaking out - bailing unexpectedly in rejection. Boom.
Anyone know where the true source of System Model value data is at? Is this a value read from hardware or firmware? Something must have this value stored wrongly and pass it to Windows during an install or at runtime.. where though!? Still researching on my end. I'm not opposed to literally hacking into whatever is necessary here, why not.
Note I have reinstalled Windows 11. I figure I'll run with trying to solve this on that version going forward.
