Aspire V5-571P Boot Problem after Windows Update

Just looking at a friends Acer Aspire V5-571P that will no longer boot after a recent Windows Update that downloaded, installed to about 30% & then automatically restarted. I have tried all of the usual refresh & advanced options to trry & resolve and/or troubleshoot but have been continually unsuccessful.

On each restart, the Acer logo is displayed with a rotating circle of dots but this soon switches to the old BSOD citing INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. Automatic repair attempts fail, as do all my manual ones including Safe modes (same result) and enabling Boot Logging (either by advanced options or bcdedit /set) but no ntbtlog.txt gets created.

All looks fine from DISKPART & can access the main system drive through the recovery console, even to the point of proving full access by exporting a copy of the bcdedit setup to it.

None of the usual F2/F12 keys seem to work during post boot up but unsure whether this is a bug or just a feature of using UEFI rather than BIOS. The only other anomally that I have noticed, although not sure if related, is that the HDD Password State is showing as Frozen in the BIOS.

30+ years in the trade & I am at a loss as to what to try next !! Any suggestions?

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IronFly

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/32674/~/bios-password-frozen

the hard thing is to enter BIOS as you stated.

scb31

Thanks for prompt response IronFly, but I should have included that I'd already unsuccessfully tried that.

I didn't want to dwell on it though as not sure if it is part of the main problem or just a side issue.

Currently having to let the laptop try to boot, fail, try to repair, fail then access advanced repair options to then get into UEFI & change settings. Not sure if this may be part of the reason why your suggestion fails but unsure of what else to try.

IronFly

HDD frozen password can be solved only following that instructions or trying a CMOS reset.

the frozen password can create that kind of issues your are reporting, so if you are not able to clear the HDD password, any other thing will be unsuccessful.

scb31

Thanks again for speedy reply.

I will investigate further should what you're saying be the case, just did not want to expend a lot of time if it was unlikely to be root cause of the main problem. This is a new one on me but I always thought that HDD passwords were stored more on the drives themselves rather than in CMOS so wouldn't have expected a CMOS reset (how is this done on this machine?) to fix it. Also, it would seem strange that I was able to save a file to the drive but cannot boot from it, or does the recovery console just ignore it? Is there anywhere I can read up further? Not found much yet.

Should the function keys work in this UEFI mode too or is this a bug? Did think of trying to extract the 2.18 BIOS file (currently running 2.17) and manually running the batch file but not sure it would work in recovery environment & didn't want to brick it!

Appreciate your continued input.

IronFly

My fault about clearing HDD password with a clear CMOS, i was thinking at the supervisor password, by the way i'm quite sure that your issue on booting is for the frozen password.