UEFI & BIOS misbehave (on Packard-Bell box), only boots Win8

lewyssmith

Not sure whether I should be here, but Packard-Bell has no user forum that I can find; and Acer owns them, and I think my P-B system is Acer based. Tell me if otherwise.

 

I have a P-B desktop iMedia S2110 with Win8 pre-installed, whose UEFI and BIOS behaves badly, ignoring things it should not. In particular, it seems to be configured to load Win8 whatever else may have been specified.

 

BIOS: despite denoting in BIOS setup both DVD and removeable (USB) device *before* the disc for booting, both boot media seem to be ignored on straight power-up. F12 does show the EFI boot menu which includes DVD/USB bootable media & allows them to be selected; but this should not be necessary. Is there anything I can do - update the BIOS?

 

UEFI: I have read widely on this subject, so know what to expect. Simply, the machine ignores all the rules and boots W8 whatever might be configured otherwise in the NVRAM. Specifically, it seems programmed to go to EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi (or bootmgr.efi I cannot tell) come what may. The only way out is F12 and the EFI boot menu, which does mostly heed the NVRAM settings. Moreover, I do not know what EFI version is implemented, and there is no EFI shell offered.

 

It seems that P-B have some commercial agreement (subsidy) with Microsoft for this to be the case. BTAIM I really would like to know what the EFI BIOS is programmed to do: the NVRAM boot settings seem correctly set, they are just ignored on power-up. Also, can I update the EFI BIOS to behave decently? No info on the P-B site, nor anywhere I can find.

 

As an aside, there is no adequate spec for the machine. E.g. it has 7 USB ports, of which I have discovered that 4 are USB2 and 3 USB3; but no indication of which are which. I had to discover for myself how to enter BIOS setup and invoke the EFI boot menu; no info provided at all. Should I be able to find a proper spec for the box? The P-B site denies knowledge of the model...

 

TIA      [edited for privacy]

Tommy-Acer

It sounds like you're not shutting down completely, and it's using Windows 8's standby state to Fast Start.

So when you start the system, it's not actually going through everything in UEFI, it's quick starting from the cache.

 

We've got an article on that:

Shutting Down Your Computer in Windows 8

 

I was able to find the iMedia S2110 marketing specfication on the Packard Bell France site:

http://www.packardbell.fr/pb/fr/FR/content/model/DT.U7JMF.001

 

If there's something specific that is not covered in the User's Guide, please let me know and I'll do my best to help.

lewyssmith

Thank you for your considerate reply.

 

> It sounds like you're not shutting down completely, and it's using Windows 8's standby state to Fast Start.
> So when you start the system, it's not actually going through everything in UEFI, it's quick starting from the cache.

I had disabled "Fast start" in both the BIOS and Win8 itself. I always shut it down via the Settings power button anyway, but 
*this* is interesting in the 'Shutting Down Your Computer in Windows 8' link you provided:

      "Hold down the Shift key and click Shut Down."

which I will try.

 

> I was able to find the iMedia S2110 marketing specfication on the Packard Bell France site:

> http://www.packardbell.fr/pb/fr/FR/content/model/DT.U7JMF.001

It was very decent of you to do this, but I had long found the same thing in the same place - and equivalent UK site. I find it unacceptable that even this very meagre info is not provided with the product! The only leaflets were about coping with Win8.

 

Compared to a typical system/motherboard booklet, it tells very little, lacking both basic and advanced info like:

- What the various external sockets all are;

- No mention of USB sockets, particularly which are USB2 and USB3 (whose actual presence I have deduced for myself: I think there are 3 type 2, 4 type 3); the difference matters;

- What keys to press on startup for Setup, EFI boot menu etc;

- BIOS settings and their explanations;

- Explanation of the EFI boot menu (if you discover it);

- Nothing about how to add memory;

- No explanation of the many disc partitions it comes with.

This really is as shoddy as it gets for a well-known brand P-B backed by a reputable one Acer. I feel guilty whingeing in response to your helpfulness: it is not your fault! All this info - and a full explanation of saving/restoring the system/Win8, which *is* partly explained in the PackardBell Win8 menu item - could easily be provided in a PDF document on the disc, which is normal practice.

 

Re EFI booting and the NVRAM, this is all Acer stuff - the EFI is version 2.3.. quite recent. I am mastering fiddling with it via efibootmgr. Some things work, others do not - notably not being able to update an existing Bootxxx entry, but having to delete it and re-create it. (This might be down to efibootmgr). Without knowing how, I have for the moment stopped Win8 automatically loading. I really would appreciate knowing the nitty-gritty of the *system's* EFI boot process, the logic it follows. Now it seems to me to be loading the default EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi which *I* put there, previously only accessible via the 'disc' EFI boot menu entry; and ignoring the BootOrder array despite Bootxxxx entries being valid.. That array seems the major weakness, variously not being heeded, not holding a defined form.  Would it heed an EFI shell if I put one in EFI\  ? What does the 'active' flag mean for a boot entry? It does not seem to make any difference.

 

Happy to be pointed to where to find out these things. Appreciated your response.

 

Lewis Smith