had trouble with a laptop a user brought in, the thing was so fucked, not even the built in recovery options weren’t working i had to try do all my repairs off the command terminal off windows installation media.

some digging showed me like in the image, the laptop had pending updates it couldn’t complete

after hours even days of constant commands and power cycling, trying to get the thing back into working order, i just give up.

when i come back days later, magically starts completing its pending updates, literally did nothing and its nothing like i didnt try power cycling (unplugged the battery and everything to try power cycle the thing)

just windows magically coming to life after leaving it for days in a corner just brings it back to life

im very new to the IT and general repairs, so does anyone share a similar experience? im starting to think i could have just left this laptop in a corner for a while without having to do any work and it would have just started working lol

randomly turned it on one day and the screen doesnt turn on.

state of the laptop

• laptop powered on, fans are spinning
• initially after hours the thing would boot into BitLocker recovery but doesn't anymore
  • (not after the second attempt - nothing was altered by the second attempt, just did that on its own im afraid)
• after going past the BitLocker recovery, machine would start running a "Automatic Repair"
• machine would attempt to reboot and that cycle repeats to no avail (even after 3 attempts as ive tried to get into the bios with no success)
• the lightbulb looking LED is always on while the laptop is turned on
  • once machine is powered on, it immediately stays on and does nothing else unless i decide to want to power it off
• the power LED goes orange and whatever it needs to depending on charge state
  • it turns off when the power cable is disconnected

things ive tried

• entered BitLocker recovery key multiple times.
• let Automatic Repair run.
  • it flashed what looked like WinPE/command prompt repair scripts, then rebooted back to BitLocker.
• tried entering BIOS with F2 and boot menu with Esc.
  • nothing happened and no input does anything
• tried HDMI external monitor, no output.
• removed SSD and tried booting without it, still black screen.
• reseated the single RAM stick.
• disconnected internal battery.
  • held power button for ~40 seconds for EC/power drain.
• reconnected battery and charger.
  • no change

i have lost my sanity trying to deal with this god forsaken thing and i hope someone out there has a solution cos ive tried doing everything on my part.

sorry to be treating the asus reddit like the IT guy at the office but ive lost my hope and pray someone has a solution