Question Bootres.dll Corrupted - Google fixes not working

[CodyJF]

Hey!

A friend of mine came home to an Asus pc running Windows 10 that won't boot. It just constantly loops through Automatic Repair.

Startup Repair gave a log file stating that bootres.dll is corrupted (error code 0x57). Google says to run SFC or DSIM. We tried running these command with the command prompt in Startup Repair with no luck (DISM won't work without a network connection, SFC gave us a resource protection error.)

We also cannot boot into Safe Mode. Every time we try, we get a generic " Your PC has run into a problem and needs to restart" error. We've also tried rolling back to a restore point and refreshing the pc with no luck.

What else can we try? Or are we sunk? Thanks!

 

[Colif]

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB - handy boot drive if nothing else

safe mode doesn't normally work unless win 10 can get as far as the login screen
is there anything on PC your friend wants to keep?

boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type notepad and press enter
in notepad, select file>open
Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or hdd

once you saved everything off PC, I would do a clean install as that will replace the broken files
follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/

 

[CodyJF]

Thank you! Would he need to purchase a new Win10 license key after the clean install?

 

[britechguy]

No. Here's the opening paragraph from my own instructions on doing a completely clean (re)install:

Important Reminder 1:

If your computer has ever had a valid, licensed copy of Windows 10 installed, even if that's been later replaced by, say, Linux, you can still do a completely clean install of Windows 10 without having to acquire a new license. Windows 10 licenses are stored electronically on Microsoft servers, and are linked to your computer's motherboard. The installer will locate that existing license if you are reinstalling Windows 10.

 

[CodyJF]

Oh, perfect! We will give this a try today!

 

[CodyJF]

We got him up and running again! Thank you for all your help!